Disposable e-cigarettes could be banned in Hawaiʻi starting in 2027. State lawmakers are advancing a measure that would make it illegal to sell electronic smoking devices that don’t have refillable cartridges or a rechargeable battery.
Coalition for Tobacco Free Hawaiʻi Youth Council's Jeremiah Jacinto, a high school student, listed the negative impacts of disposable e-cigarettes on health, safety and the environment.
“ Hawaiʻi is facing a serious vaping epidemic driven by cheap and highly addictive disposable e-cigarettes, many of which are illegal yet still widely available to my peers,” he said.
“These products also harm our environment, made of plastic, toxic chemicals and lithium-ion batteries. They cannot be properly recycled and often end up in our landfills, beaches, and our oceans, which we have seen firsthand.”
The measure would also ban online retailers from shipping the disposable devices to the state. Retailers that violate the measure would be fined $1,000 a day.
The United Kingdom has banned the sale of disposable e-cigarettes since 2025.
Hawaiʻi was the first state in the country to raise the smoking age to 21 in 2016.
The bill passed out of the House Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and will next be voted on by the full body.
