Identification of Vape Shops in Two North Carolina Counties: An Approach for States without Retailer Licensing.

ABSTRACT: Stores that sell electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) as their primary product are a new phenomenon and often termed "vape shops". While vape shops are now regulated by state and federal agencies, not all states maintain lists of vape shops in operation. Standard ways of identifying tobacco retailers through off-premise alcohol permits and business listing services may not identify vape shops. We used four online business listing services (i.e., Google Maps, ReferenceUSA, YellowPages.com, Yelp) to identify vape shops in two counties in North Carolina (NC). In one county, we also assessed four vaping web sites. We drove primary and secondary roads to physically validate the identified stores and attempt to identify stores not listed online. To assess the accuracy of the online search

SUBMITTER: Lee JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5129260 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature