A Ban on Flavored E-Cigs Will Put Adolescents in Greater Danger

Jeffrey A. SingerAs of December 2019, eight states haveacted to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. Other states arecontemplating bans in 2020.I have pointed outhere andhere why banning flavored vaping products will deny adult tobacco smokers a proven means of quitting harmful tobacco smoking. In fact, nicotine e-cigarettes —of which more than 90 percent of adult tobacco quitters prefer the flavored kind—aretwice as effective as nicotine gum or patches in helping smokers stop. We recently learned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that virtually every case of EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product-use associated lung injury) is due to bootleg THC vaping cartridges containing vitamin E acetate.The states ofWashington andColorado, where recreational cannabis is legal, banned the use of vitamin E acetate in the manufacture of any THC vaping cartridges by state-based companies in reaction to the CDC report.It has been illegal to sell e-cigarettes to persons under age 18 since 2016. The reason lawmakers are targeting flavored vaping products is because underage e-cigarette users prefer the flavored variety. But, as mentioned above, so do adults trying to quit tobacco.Now comes a new study published in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journalAddictive Behaviors Reportsthat found 80 percent of adolescents aged 13-17 who were able to obtainJUUL brand e-cigarettes got them from “at least one social source (e.g. ‘someone bought for me, someone offered m...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs