Flavors matter less when teenagers are attracted to e-cigs. Curiosity, friends and a way to cope with stress and anxiety are more important factors, according to a major study.
Curiosity and peer influence are the main reasons why young people try e-cigarettes. In combination with stress and anxiety management. This is shown by several analyses from different countries. Ahead of a planned flavor ban, Canadian researchers published a comprehensive report on youth vejpanor.
More complicated than flavors
The number of teenagers trying e-cigarettes has increased since researchers started tracking the trend in 2014. And despite legislation in many parts of the world focusing on flavors as the major reason for young people to try vejp products, the Canadian research on more complex factors. According to the researchers, it ranges from peer pressure and availability to a way of coping with stress and anxiety. Even group identity and risk behavior plays an important role, following the same pattern as for regular smoking.
"Young people are aware of the risks of using the products, but this seems to play less of a role in their decision to try them," Sarah Dow-Fleisner, who led the study, told the online magazine EurekaAlert.
Targeted restrictions work
The report is based on analysis of over 800 studies and focuses in part on the Canadian market, where e-cigarette legislation is in development. In countries where legislation has been in place longer, such as the UK, similar studies show that very few young people who are former non-smokers use e-cigarettes regularly. And according to British health authorities targeted restrictions on marketing to young people, clear information on what e-cigarettes are and what the technology is used for, have worked well. According to UK research, the proportion of non-smoking young people who use e-cigarettes regularly is less than one percent. However, the number of young people trying e-cigarettes is significantly higher.
Young smokers are more likely to try e-cigs
In Sweden statistics from CAN show the majority of upper secondary school students who have used e-cigarettes have only tried it once. One percent of students in grades 1 and 2 of upper secondary school do so daily or almost daily. Almost half of the young people who try e-cigarettes regularly are already using regular cigarettes.
Swedish retailers are currently prohibited by law from marketing electronic cigarettes outside their own websites. Exceptions apply to unregulated products such as nicotine-free e-juice.
Recently, Sweden voted Parliament against the government proposal to ban flavorings in e-liquid and disposable models. The rationale was that a sweeping ban would discourage harm minimization.
