HOUSTON – A new law in Texas will soon prohibit e-cigarette advertisements within 1,000 feet of schools and churches, following the signing of Senate Bill 1316.
Introduced by State Senator Molly Cook (D-Houston), the bill is part of a broader legislative effort aimed at regulating how and where e-cigarette products are marketed, particularly to young people.
“So, we know advertising is just so, so important to protect children from,” Senator Cook said. “Because the younger you start, the harder it is to quit. And so that becomes a very reliable customer for a really long time. If you’re selling these addictive products.”
SB 1316 amends the Texas Health and Safety Code to stop the placement of tobacco and e-cigarette advertisements within a 1,000-foot radius of educational and religious institutions. Cook says the bill closes a gap in existing law by adding e-cigarettes to the list of covered products.
“And so, we want to keep things like bus stop advertisements or billboards, digital signs free of these products that are luring kids in,” Cook told KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun. “Especially when they’re at their faith home, at their school, places where they’re required to be, places where we want them to be for a majority of their day.”
The restrictions apply only to ads outside a business. Ads posted inside stores, including neon signs visible from the outside, are not affected by SB 1316.
Retailers in affected zones will be required to remove any qualifying outdoor advertisements by the time the law goes into effect on September 1.
Rilwan: Some of these vape shop owners who can say, well, this is gonna harm my business. What would you say to them?
State Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston: I would ask them to be good neighbors and to consider how these products impact children and look forward to, you know, working together on building these laws and look [forward] to their compliance.
A separate bill Senate Bill 1313, also authored by Cook, wants to address the look of e-cigarette products. That bill, which remains in the House, would ban the use of cartoon characters, celebrity endorsements, candy-themed images, and other elements commonly used to appeal to minors.
SB 1313 is part of a broader package of proposals Cook said focuses on regulating the vape industry. Another measure aims to expand the legal definition of e-cigarettes to include all vape devices, it’s a change Cook said was absorbed into a separate bill on smoke shops.
“It’s important for us to chip away at each piece of this to bring these e-cig stores up in line with alcohol and tobacco,” the state senator said. “And then we have another bill, that would also just limit minors from being able to even walk into these shops without getting carted. And that one has not moved as quickly throughout the process, so we’re looking forward to picking that back up possibly next session.”