Bans on flavored e-cigarettes may see some vapers return to smoking cigarettes

Most grownup vapers of non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes overwhelmingly oppose taste restrictions, in line with a current examine.

The examine, performed by the Worldwide Tobacco Management Coverage Analysis Venture on the College of Waterloo, examined whether or not common vapers from Canada, England and the USA who solely use non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, would help or oppose a ban on all non-tobacco flavors and the way they might probably reply to such a coverage.

“Our examine helps to fill the gaps in proof of the potential influence of e-cigarette taste bans, following from different research which have predicted how people who smoke reply to tobacco management insurance policies similar to tax will increase and menthol bans,” mentioned Professor Geoffrey Fong, co-author and the principal investigator of the ITC Venture.

The vaping business produces 1000’s of flavored vaping merchandise, similar to tobacco, menthol, fruit, and sweet. With rising charges of youth vaping, regulators in some international locations are grappling with choices on how you can finest regulate vaping product flavors to guard public well being. A ban on flavored vaping merchandise intends to discourage vaping amongst youth. However it isn’t clear whether or not a taste ban would additionally discourage vaping amongst grownup people who smoke who vape, who additionally like flavors. Nevertheless, it’s unknown whether or not there could possibly be unintended results of a taste ban. For instance, may those that have used flavored e-cigarettes to chop down or give up smoking threat relapsing to smoking if flavored e-cigarettes are not accessible?

Within the examine, 82 % of the 851 vapers surveyed within the three international locations say they oppose a taste ban, 13 % help it, and 5 % are uncertain.

Vapers have been then requested what they may do if there was a ban on the flavors they have been at the moment vaping. Of the 57 % who reported they might proceed vaping, half would vape an accessible authorized taste (tobacco taste within the U.S., tobacco and menthol in Canada and England), and the opposite half reported that they might discover a approach to get their most well-liked taste(s) after the ban. About one in 5 vapers mentioned they might cease vaping and smoke as an alternative, with 13 % reporting that they didn’t know what they might do.

“Our findings increase the likelihood that banning some flavored vaping merchandise might dissuade some grownup people who smoke from vaping, with the likelihood that they might return to smoking cigarettes, that are clearly rather more dangerous than vaping merchandise, provided that we all know that at the least half of normal people who smoke die of a smoking-caused illness,” mentioned ITC analysis assistant professor Shannon Gravely, who was lead writer of the examine.

The examine, “Responses to potential nicotine vaping product taste restrictions amongst common vapers utilizing non-tobacco flavors: Findings from the 2020 ITC Smoking and Vaping Survey in Canada, England and the USA,” was not too long ago printed within the journal Addictive Behaviors.