Key Points: 

• Texas’s vaping industry provided more than $807 million in economic activity in 2018 while generating 8,022 direct vaping-related jobs. Sales of disposables and prefilled cartridges in Texas exceeded $27.4 million in 2016.

• As of January 14, 2020, TDSHS has reported 237 cases of vaping-related lung illnesses, including four deaths. To date, 90 percent of patients reported using vapor products containing THC. TDSHS earns an A for its transparency on vaping-related lung illnesses.  

• In 2017, only 1.5 percent of Texas high school students reported daily e-cigarette use. More data is needed.   

• Only 3 percent of FDA retail compliance checks in Texas resulted in sales of e-cigarettes to minors from January 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.

• Texas spends very little on tobacco prevention. In 2019, Texas dedicated only $4.2 million on tobacco control, or less than 1 percent of what the state received in tobacco settlement payments and taxes.