Vape Shop Essential Business Claims
The CSPH TA team hopes to help address an emerging need for you with the linked tracking form.
On recent learning community calls, issues were shared from around the state about vape and/or tobacco shops staying open despite not being designated “essential businesses”. We realize the problems this can create for LPHAs, as many of your agencies do not have the time or means to enforce or address these issues among other COVID-19 needs and priorities. The CSPH TA team and STEPP seeks to compile a list of any instances where vape and tobacco shops in your local community are/were falsely claiming to be essential businesses and defying stay at home/safer at home orders. By creating a list of who is violating/has violated—we document what a problem this is state-wide—which in turn could influence policy or regulation changes. This list may also be helpful for the future, so we know who may show up to strongly oppose our work in local tobacco control policy. We seek to collect this information from each of you while these violations are still fresh on our minds. Please provide as much information as possible in
if you have been made aware of such an occurrence –ASAP. Thank you! All our best, The CSPH Policy Technical Assistance Team
The associated files and links are available below.