What Voters Think About Vaping & Bans on Flavored Pods

Harvard Harris Poll Debrief with Mark Penn and Bob Cusack

A subject that's been in the news lately, vaping. We took a quick look at public opinion on vaping and on the controversy created by flavored vaping that spread like wildfire among teens.
Do you think that electronic vaping is generally a safe substitute for tobacco or are there significant health concerns around vaping? 77% say there are significant health concerns, only 23% think that it is generally a safe substitute. Now I have no idea whether it is or isn't, but public opinion has clearly lined up as pretty hostile to the overall concept of vaping as a substitute. They don't see it as having been proven safe, which is why when I asked the straightforward question, "Should vaping be allowed for adults?" That was split 50/50, 50% yes, 50% no. So, they're concerned about vaping even with adults, let alone kids.
Should vaping be allowed for kids under 18? Well, it's a long time since I have seen any poll question on any topic being 95/5. 95% say it should not be allowed for kids under 18 and the 5% is quite an outlier. Should manufacturers be allowed to sell vaping with candy type flavors or should such flavors be banned? Well, given the generally hostile opinion that people have about vaping, not a surprise that 72% say that these types of candy flavors should be banned, 28% say allowed to sell vaping with candy type flavors. Some people say that flavored vaping naturally attracts a lot of kids, and so it needs to be banned. Others say that flavored vaping should not be banned because many adults like the flavors as well, which is closer to review, ban them 74%, 26% not banned.
So I think you really see in a quick overview here that I think where the administration came out, banning the flavors but allowing adults to continue to use menthol and the tobacco flavored ones is pretty consistent with public opinion, but that the public is really going to want a real safety watch even for adults on whether or not this is a genuinely safe and useful substitute at all. But no question about the powerful public opinion, and it's even stronger among women than men, a powerful public opinion view that these candy type flavors should not be on the shelves because of their attractiveness to children.