FDA Targeted Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes Did Not Significantly Reduce Youth Use

In January 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) beganstepping up enforcement against the sale of most sweet-flavored e-cigarette cartridges as part of an effort to reduce e-cigarette use among youth. Astudy published today inJAMA Network Open suggests that this targeted enforcement was not associated with a significant decline in e-cigarette use among youth.Karin Kasza, Ph.D., of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., and colleagues wrote that the FDA ’s limited action “left open an avenue through which youth continued use of flavored e-cigarettes through using devices not covered by the enforcement guidance.”Kasza and colleagues analyzed data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study for 2019 and 2021. This is a nationally representative longitudinal study of tobacco use among youth that tracks transitions in e-cigarette use, flavor/device combination used, brand used, nicotine use, and frequency of use. The analysis included responses from 9,088 youth aged 12 to 17 years in 2019 who also participated in 2021 when they were up to age 20.Among youth aged 12 to 17 who used sweet-flavored e-cigarette cartridges in 2019, 51.5% continued to use e-cigarettes in 2021; this was similar to the 47.6% continuation rate among youth who used other e-cigarette flavors or devices (such as disposable e-cigarettes) in 2019. Eighty four percent of youth who used sweet-flavored cartridges in 2019 switched to another e-cigarette combinat...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: E-cigarettes FDA ban on sweet flavors flavored e-cigarettes Karin Kasza sweet e-cigarette flavors Source Type: research