While people who are concerned blame electronic cigarettes’ candy and fruit flavors, it is not easy to pinpoint what causes youngsters to use e-cigarettes in record quantities. What is it precisely that sweet-smelling smoke that makes electronic cigarettes appealing? A study published Tuesday in Public Health Reports is a significant step towards solving that question.
In the new study, an international team of researchers utilized data from teens (ages 12-17), younger adults (18 up to 24), and older adults to study the debated connection between sweet flavors and young vaping. The 308 individuals, teens, and young adults were found to have reported that they are at significantly higher risk of choosing sweet and fruit-flavored juices.
The research team, led by Samir Soneji, Ph.D., Demographer of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, reported that young adults or teenagers were 3.35 times more likely than older adults to consume flavor-infused e-cigarettes. The chances of people with these ages having a candy-like flavor were even more significant: 3.81 times higher than adults.
“Teens in record numbers are vaping, and we wanted to know what they’re vaping,” He says to the Inverse. “Youth prefer candyand fruit-flavored electronic cigarettes, and adultswho are a majority smokers – prefer flavored tobacco e-cigarettes. It’s true that the preferences of young people are distinct.”
Teens and teens in Soneji’s research also said they used more varieties of flavors when they smoked. However, of the adolescents and young adults who stayed with a single flavor and preferred fruit, the flavors of fruits were the most commonly used. For adults who stuck to the same flavor, “tobacco or other flavors” were the most popular selection.
In the context of attempts by the FDA to crack down on vape businesses, Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has mainly attacked companies advertising to teenagers. In November, the e-cigarette manufacturer Juul shut down some websites on social media (Facebook and Instagram, but not Twitter). , However, it did not shut down Twitter) to deflect accusations that they target teenagers through their advertising, in addition to Juul’s mango, cucumber mint, and mango flavors. However, the flavors remain controversial, and the company’s November announcement was that Juul has also taken down some flavor combinations that were fruity from its stores in response to the release of a CDC review on the company’s explosive sales. Juul has issued numerous statements indicating that it prohibits teens from using its products.
“You can prohibit flavor-based e-cigarettes that are candy or fruity and not hurt adult smokers who use e-cigarettes to help them quit.
The most recent study will prove that teens prefer these flavors, but it goes another step.
Soneji’s group looked into survey data to determine the reasons teens prefer to smoke. He noted that flavors played a significant role in the choice. 77.9 percent of adolescents, in addition to 90.3 percent of young users, stated that they use vapes because it has flavors they enjoy. Most older adults (79 percent), to the contrary, said that the primary reason they smoked was that they believed that it is more secure than traditional cigarettes. Safety concerns were the third and second most frequently mentioned reasons for using vaping among young adults and teens, respectively.
Ultimately, these results are a significant issue in e-cigarette regulations and regulation: the tension between helping smokers quit and bringing a new generation of youngsters addicted to nicotine. Soneji believes that his research shows an avenue by which the FDA can advance as it tackles this “epidemic” of teen smoking e-cigarettes without restricting options for adult smokers looking to stop.
“It’s in the FDA’s regulatory power to ban certain flavors. This means that it can effectively stop the sales of fruit- and candy-flavored electronic cigarettes,” he states. “The electronic-cigarette industry would be in a frenzy in protest, claiming that it would hurt smokers of adult age who use e-cigarettes to quit smoking, but in reality scientifically, this isn’t the scenario. It is possible to ban fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes, and not hurt smokers of adult age who use electronic cigarettes to quit.”
If Gottlieb was still in charge of the FDA, this could be one of the weapons in his battle against electronic cigarettes. It could now be a weapon for his successor to use when regulations for the future are developed.
Abstract
Goals Use of electronic cigarettes with flavors (e-cigarettes) is widespread among users of electronic cigarettes. However, there needs to be more information about the possible harms posed by flavorings, how often multi-flavored kinds occur, and the factors influencing the use of different flavors. This study aimed to determine the kinds of e-cigarette flavorings that are used by adolescents (aged 12-17) and youngsters (aged 18-24) as well as older age (aged 25) users of electronic cigarettes.
The methods used: The study examined the proportion of flavored electronic cigarettes during the past month, by different flavor types as well as simultaneous use of different flavors in e-cigarettes of past month users surveyed during the second wave (2014-2015) from the Population Assessment for Tobacco and Health Study in 414 teenagers 961 young adults plus 1711 old adults. We utilized logistic regression models weighted for using candy-, fruit-mint/menthol- tobacco or other flavored e-cigarettes and concurrent use of several flavors. Covariates were demographics, the frequency of e-cigarette use and smoking habits, current use of other tobacco products, and the reasons behind using e-cigarettes.
Conclusions The regulation of sweet flavors of e-cigarettes (e.g., fruit, candy, and others) could help to reduce the consumption of e-cigarettes by young people without significantly burdening adult users of e-cigarettes.
