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10 those employed fewer than 5 employees.46 Based on these data, the average number of employees ‡‡ in verified e-cigarette retailer stores was 378 and in unverified e-cigarette retailer stores was 715. Under scenarios in which 100%, 50%, and 25% of these businesses close due to a ban or restriction, approximately 1,093, 547, and 274 employees would face the prospect of job separation, respectively. By way of comparison, Maryland’s employment in the retail sector was approximately 270,000 workers in 2018.47 An important consideration is that a ban or restriction on flavored tobacco products is not a ban on all electronic cigarettes. Assuming existing specialized retailers modify their product offerings to drop flavored products and add other products, there may be little to no impact on the number of these businesses and the people they employ. A related concern in the event of job separation in any specialized sub-industry is the ease with which workers are absorbed into other jobs. Labor economists rely on 1) an understanding of job requirements and 2) the availability of similar jobs to understand the ease with which one group of workers might find alternative livelihood opportunities in the event of an industry-specific change. With respect to job requirements, frontline retail jobs tend to be relatively low in the intensity of human capital requirements for training and retraining—by some estimates 72% of frontline retail workers receive less than 20 hours of training.48 Employment in most categories of retail jobs in the state of Maryland are predicted to grow at over 1.5% between 2018 and 2020.49 Within the context of continued declines in overall unemployment in the state, these point to both the availability of comparable jobs and relative ease with which the small group of potentially displaced retail workers might be ‡‡ ReferenceUSA data categorizes establishments by employee size. The mid-points of these categories (1-4, 5-9 and 10-19) were used to estimate the average number of employees. Upper bounds for the number of employees in verified and unverified stores is 576, and 1141 respectively.46 absorbed in those comparable jobs and sectors.50,51 COMPLIANCE Compliance studies from several of the early adopters can serve as an early barometer for a policy’s ability to succeed. Here we explore findings and lessons learned from Boston, Massachusetts, other Massachusetts communities, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Chicago, Illinois. In 2016, the city of Boston, Massachusetts implemented a policy restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products, including cigars, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes, to adult- only retailers. A Guidance List was provided to retailers in order to better delineate what is a flavored versus non-flavored product, and the list is periodically updated to reflect additional products, with adequate time given to retailers to comply with the updates to the list. A pre- /post- study design was used to evaluate retailer compliance with this law. Baseline data collected prior to implementation of the policy indicate 89% of the retailers surveyed were selling flavored products (average of 19.5 unique flavored tobacco products were available for sale). At the follow-up stage, 8-months after the policy went into effect, 14% of the retailers were selling flavored tobacco products (average of 0.4 unique flavored tobacco products were available for sale). Approximately 86% and 62% of retailers reported that educational visits and the Guidance List were the most helpful in achieving compliance, respectively. In total, the researchers found that 51 retailers were not compliant after the policy effective date; 73% of these did not know a product was in violation of the policy. When the non-compliant retailers were asked about the challenges, 36% indicated