So, turns out that banning flavored e-cigarettes, you know, those vapes, might have actually caused more young adults to turn to tobacco cigarettes. Public health experts have been debating for ages about whether those fruity, minty flavors in vapes lure young folks in. It’s like, are they really so tempting that they make teens switch from harmless flavors to the harshness of cigarettes?
In the past few years, vapes, like Juul, have been all the rage. But then came the restrictions on flavors. The FDA even banned Juul for a bit, until they changed their minds recently.
A new study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research talks about the unintended consequences of banning flavored vapes. It seems that instead of ditching nicotine when faced with flavor bans, younger folks are just switching to cigarettes, which we all know are way more harmful.
The study, titled “The Impact of E-Cigarette Flavor Bans on Smoking,” showed that while flavored e-cig sales dropped, cigarette sales went up. Researchers from Michigan State University and San Diego State University did this research and found that the flavor bans brought down youth vaping by 1.2-2.5 percentage points but increased combustible cigarette use, especially among 18 to 20-year-olds.
This shift from vaping to smoking is pretty significant, indicating a real change in behavior that’s worth noting.
Another study by Yale University in 2021 also suggested that banning flavored vapes might lead teens to pick up cigarettes instead, even though we all know cigarettes are way worse for us health-wise.
Well, the CDC found out in 2023 that one in ten Americans aged 18-24 are regular e-cigarette users. And back in 2000, almost 90% of kids using vapes favored flavored ones. That’s a lot of flavor love!
While restrictions on flavors did reduce vaping in younger adults, the older folks didn’t really change their habits much.
Good news is, the flavor bans didn’t push young people to harmful behaviors like binge-drinking or drug abuse, but the concern still looms over the transition from vaping to smoking, with cigarettes carrying a higher risk due to the toxins in cigarette smoke compared to e-cig vapor.
Over 370 cities, nine states, and even D.C. have put laws in place restricting flavored e-cigarette sales, all in a bid to curb these concerning trends.