Researchers at Bristol Medical University believe that a total ban on flavoured vapes could help prevent young people from vaping. This is a proposal that is also being supported by many senior researchers from several leading UK universities.
Bristol Medical School’s Smoking Studies Senior Research Associate, Dr Jasmine Khouja has carried out studies on how effectively banning flavoured vapes can help reduce vaping uptake among young Britons. In her studies, she has postulated that relacing flavoured vapes with menthol or flavourless alternatives can help reduce the uptake of vaping among the youth.
Many researchers in the UK and across the world believe that the availability of a wide range of flavoured vaping products is a major contributor to the popularity of these products among young people.
Vaping products were initially designed to help addicted tobacco smokers quit by slowly substituting their favourite tobacco products with vapes of different flavours. The many flavours however have turned out to be one of the pulling factors for the younger generations. Today teens who have never smoked before are attracted to vaping products because they have many flavours such as fruit flavours. This is having the opposite effect. Instead of helping people quit smoking, it is creating a new breed of smokers. Many disposable vaping products contain high levels of nicotine which is quite addictive. When teens who are addicted to these products can’t get them, they easily turn to smoke cigarettes. This is a worrying trend not just among researchers but all the stakeholders.
According to Dr Khouja, the most popular flavours among the youth include fruity flavours, sweet flavours and ice-menthol flavours. Teens are always on the lookout for the latest flavours. This means that flavours keep changing as manufacturers keep devising new flavours to entice them. This is a threat as more and more youth are trying these new products just because of the new flavours.
It is believed that you can get vaping products in more than 350 different flavours in the UK. This gives young people a wide variety to try. The problem is that many people post videos on Tik Tok with their favourite vape products and flavours. This has a huge impact as millions of young people use these platforms and easily get induced into trying some new flavour they have yet to try. This gets more nicotine into their systems and this may result in addiction.
The long-term effects of disposable vaping are yet to be known. This makes many people see these products as healthy alternatives to smoking. This however does not mean these products are safe. Already several studies have shown that electronic cigarette products can be dangerous just as smoking cigarettes.
Many of the vaping products sold in the UK are imported into the country from countries such as China. Interestingly, China, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaping products has banned the sale of these products within its borders. This is an indicator of the belief among experts that vaping is not as safe as many people want to believe.
This is not just China alone. Many other countries are beginning to ban the sale of flavoured vaping products to protect their young people from taking up vaping as a habit. In the US already many cities and jurisdictions have passed laws banning the sale of flavoured vapes. Health experts in many other places are also looking to enact bans on these products.
Other than banning the sale of flavoured vaping products health experts in the UK are also considering other proposals. The experts who met at London’s E-cigarette Summit last week also considered proposals to ban the sale of vaping products to those below 21 years, and restrict how these products are packaged and marketed.
