Throughout the last decade, there has been a shift in tobacco consumption from once conventional cigarettes to newer devices: E-cigarettes, which are also known as vapes. Originally devised to lessen one’s dependence on nicotine, vapes took the world by storm. By 2014, E-cigarettes became the most commonly used tobacco product among the youth, a scary fact considering 9 in 10 adult smokers first tried conventional cigarettes during adolescence. To make matters worse, large E-cigarette companies have been under backlash due to their advertising to children. According to the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit that aims to decrease tobacco use in young adults, these companies use scholarships, social media branding, and music festival sponsorships in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. The largest change between E-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes is flavoring. These large companies exploit sweet “candy-like” flavors to attract young adults. Almost a third of students reported that the wide variety of flavors such as coffee or fruit made E-cigarettes very appealing to use. This raises the question: how has flavoring impacted this generation of tobacco users?
62.9% of E-Cigarette users consumed a flavor other than tobacco.
Image Source: Martina Paraninfi
By surveying 1492 adult E-cigarette users, a study published in Addictive Behaviors attempted to identify how flavoring influenced vape initiation and satisfaction. According to the study, 62.9% of users consumed flavors other than tobacco such as mint/methanol, sweet, candy, coffee, and etc. Almost a quarter used tobacco flavors, and almost 13% of users opted for no flavoring at all. Consumers who used flavored products, specifically mint/methanol, felt more satisfaction and felt a greater chance of being addicted than their counterparts who did not use flavored products. In addition, the study also found that for almost 30% of the respondents, flavoring was the primary reason given for starting to vape. With this in mind, flavoring, specifically fruit flavors, appealed adults aged 18-24 to start vaping compared to adults 35-44.
Since 2005, there has been a decrease in the number of smokers in America. About every 14 out of 100 Americans smoke currently whereas in 2005, it was 21 in 100 people. While this reduction is great, it cannot detract from the fact the rise in use of E-cigarettes is targeted towards the youth; once addicted, the pleasing flavors and toxic nicotine addiction can make quitting very difficult. It is a deplorable attempt to keep people addicted so that large tobacco companies can continue raking in profits as less people smoke conventional cigarettes.
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