Hawai‘i Tobacco Plan 2030

The Tobacco Prevention and Control (TPC) Plan 2030 is Hawaiʻi’s ten-year strategic plan for achieving a tobacco-free state and provides guidance for tobacco prevention, education, and cessation services through program implementation, legislative action, and community empowerment.

Over the past decade, there have been significant changes in Hawaiʻi’s tobacco prevention and control landscape. Combustible tobacco prevalence and youth initiation rates declined, quit attempts increased, and influences of cigarette marketing on youth decreased. Hawaiʻi has among the highest cigarette excise tax and rate of retail compliance to laws prohibiting underage tobacco sales in the nation. Numerous legislative actions around secondhand smoke protection, youth access to tobacco, and limitations on the age of sale and use of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, have been enacted.

Vision: A Hawaiʻi free from tobacco use, nicotine addiction, and exposure to secondhand smoke.

Goals: The tobacco prevention and control community of Hawaiʻi adopted the four main goals developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to guide comprehensive tobacco control programs:

Tobacco Priority Populations
  • Native Hawaiians
  • Youth
  • LGBT
  • Low Socioeconomic Status
  • Behavioral Health Conditions

Smoking continues to disproportionately affect Hawaiʻi’s vulnerable populations and community groups by race and ethnicity, income and education, mental health and substance use, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) orientation. The rapid rise in youth use of e-cigarettes and other novel products has accelerated to epidemic proportions, threatening the cumulative efforts to protect the next generation from the deadly effects of nicotine addiction. Therefore, the major focus of the TPC Plan 2030 is the state’s most vulnerable communities, including youth and young adults.

The TPC Plan 2030 incorporates principles of the Social Ecological Model and is organized into four sector areas: Community Design and Access, Education, Health Care, and Worksite. The plan prioritizes goals, objectives, and strategies that lead to policy, systems, and environmental change. Objectives were developed using current data, best practices, and evidence-based science, and reflect one or more cross-cutting themes.

The TPC Plan 2030 is meant to be a living document that is reviewed and updated throughout the plan’s timeframe. Implementation of the plan will be a collective effort by individuals and organizations across the state.

Hawai‘i Tobacco Plan 2030 Objectives
Community Design & Access Sector Objectives
Community Design & Access Sector
TOBACCO - 01

Enact at least five more county or state policies to decrease access to all tobacco products, including electronic smoking devices or other novel, emerging tobacco products.

Strategies
  • Establish regulatory parity for cigarettes, electronic smoking devices (ESDs), and emerging products, etc (e.g. impose taxes, licensing/permitting/restricting online sales, etc)
  • Prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products including menthol
Baseline : 0 Target : 5 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 1
Strategies
  • Establish a MedQUEST policy that requires health plans to offer expanded evidence-based cessation service options
  • Establish a policy to formally coordinate services between the Hawaiʻi Tobacco Quitline (HTQL), community cessation providers, and a private or public insurance provider to promote access to services to consumers
  • Establish a policy that requires insurance companies to expand reimbursement for youth cessation
Baseline : 0 Target : 2 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Strategies
  • Enact a smoke-free multi-unit housing ordinance in all four major counties
  • Establish policies that increase resources for smoke-free policy enforcement (at parks, beaches, public housing, etc)
Baseline : 0 Target : 2 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Education Sector Objectives
Strategies
  • Provide tobacco prevention and cessation information at incoming student orientation sessions
  • Support student health groups to conduct peer-led tobacco cessation and prevention promotion throughout all campuses
  • Create linkages between community tobacco treatment specialists, the Hawaiʻi Tobacco Quitline and universities to tailor promotions to students and increase access to cessation services for young adults
Baseline : Pending Target : All colleges and universities in Hawai'i Status as of 07/01/2023 : 1
Strategies
  • Develop and adopt best practice enforcement responses/guidelines for youth vaping/tobacco offenses to guide law enforcement or Department of Education (DOE) school officials
  • Pilot test a model alternative to suspension policy at a public or private school in Hawaiʻi and use results to inform expansion into other schools
Baseline : 0 Target : 1 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Strategies
  • Conduct outreach to universities and colleges without tobacco-free policies to provide education and information about the benefits of implementing a tobacco-free campus
  • Provide technical support to individual private colleges and universities to encourage adoption of tobacco-free campus polices
Baseline : Pending Target : All colleges and universities in Hawai'i Status as of 07/01/2023 : 10
Strategies
  • Develop culturally appropriate educational campaigns for use in school systems such as, the "Hawaiʻi Association of Independent Schools" and "Hawaiʻi State Department of Education"
  • Develop education campaigns that can be used in a variety of media types (radio, television, mall ads, social media, etc)
Baseline : 0 Target : 10 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 2
Health Care Sector Objectives
Strategies
  • Integrate assessment, referral, and treatment interventions for tobacco/ nicotine use in routine care in health care systems using electronic health records.
  • Provide staff and clinician education about cessation services to increase referral to treatment after identifying patients with tobacco/nicotine addiction.
Baseline : 0 Target : 5 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Strategies
  • Identify relevant "health professional training programs" - such as pharmacy, nursing, medicine, dental hygiene, respiratory therapists, psychology, and other related allied health programs, where brief intervention education can be incorporated
  • Coordinate brief intervention trainings with the behavioral health and substance use treatment communities
Baseline Target Status Date- 07/01/2023
Professional training programs Pending 5 0
Health specialty organizations Pending 2 0
Worksite Sector Objectives
Strategies
  • Engage unions to make changes to provide cessation coverage with no co-pay in insurance plans
  • Facilitate employers' capacity to offer programs or insurance plans that incentivize cessation or offers cessation services with no co-pay
Baseline : 0 Target : 5 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Strategies
  • Develop and define criteria for 100% tobacco-free worksite campuses
  • Develop tobacco-free campus policies for state and county departments
Baseline : 0 Target : 15 Status as of 07/01/2023 : 0
Strategies
  • Identify stakeholders and convene an advisory group to develop a Hawaiʻi-specific, evidence-based worksite wellness recognition program that includes the following areas:
    • Asthma
    • Cancer
    • Diabetes
    • Heart Disease and Stroke
    • Physical Activity and Nutrition
    • Tobacco
  • Pilot the recognition program with a group of diverse employers and modify the program based on their feedback
Baseline Target Status Date- 07/01/2023
Very Small 0 10 0
Small 0 15 0
Medium 0 10 0
Large 0 5 0
Activities Responsible Parties Completed By
1. Convene an advisory group to develop a Hawai‘i specific, comprehensive WSW recognition program that will include all aspects of health HIPHI; AlohaCare; HMSA; Kaiser; UHA Health Insurance; DOH 2024
2. Pilot recognition program with a group of diverse employers HIPHI; AlohaCare; HMSA; Kaiser; UHA Health Insurance; DOH 2025
3. Establish infrastructure for program at the DOH, statewide DOH 2025
Long-term-measures
Long-Term Measures & Trackers

The long-term measures are broad measures that help assess progress toward achieving the Healthy Hawaiʻi Vision 2030.