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I’ve been writing about health issues for over two decades now. The article that resulted in the most negative responses was one I wrote in 2013 on vaping. In the piece, I acknowledged that while some adults choose e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes, I pointed out that this was not the goal of e-cig marketing.
Cigarette and vaping manufacturers need new customers as many quit or, sadly, die. The younger they get their customers, the longer they hope to keep them. I mentioned in the 2013 article how the manufacturers promoted bubble gum, cotton candy, and many other kid-oriented flavors. Much of the mail I received consisted of comments like, “What?? Adults aren’t allowed to enjoy cotton candy and bubble gum? You’re full of [you fill in the blank].” Of course, adults can enjoy many of the same flavors that teens do. I’ve been known to pinch a few pieces of cotton candy myself and even chew on a bit of bubble gum (why does the flavor leave so darned fast though?). But do these people really think that the manufacturers are targeting adults with a sweet tooth? Of course not.
Single-use vapes promote experimenting
Other than using popular flavors, another way to attract teens is by selling cheaper single-use, disposable vape products. The lower cost introduces them to the product, and – if they become addicted to vaping – they can choose to continue with single-use devices or buy refillable ones. According to Alabama A&M University and Auburn University, through the Alabama Extension System, disposable vaping devices cost about $20 each. If the person chooses to vape regularly using disposables, the annual cost would be about $1008 per year.
If the vaper chooses refillable devices, that will set them back about $30 for the device, and then an average of $30 per week in “e-juice.” This brings the average yearly cost of vaping to about $1512.
But aside from making vaping more readily available because of the lower cost, disposable vaping devices also have an environmental impact. Medscape reports that in the United Kingdom, 1.3 million vapes are thrown away every week.
In the U.S., 4.5 disposable vapes are discarded per second. In February 2020, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration cracked down on flavored e-liquid cartridges used in refillable devices. The industry responded by increasing the availability of flavored disposable devices. Their sales increased by almost 200% 13 months later.
Since they are made to be disposable, the battery cannot be removed from the plastic casing, so they are pretty well unrecyclable. “With no standard legal way to recycle disposable vapes, and the already low e-waste recycling rate of less than 10%, the vast majority of these products will end up in landfills or our waterways after they run out of juice,” wrote the authors of the report Vape Waste: The environmental harms of disposable vapes.
But they help people quit smoking, right?
Of course, in the Medscape article, the UK vaping industry defended their product, using the “it helps people quit smoking” excuse. And again, while I don’t deny that these products can help people quit smoking, that is not their target market.
When is the last time you saw an ad from an electric cigarette promoting itself as a stop-smoking tool? According to this article in TIME, published earlier this year, Juul Labs had to pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia because of their marketing to children. This settlement followed earlier ones in other states. The authors of the article included a quote from a press conference held by District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb: “Juul knew all along how dangerous and addictive its products were. It knew, but did not care. It chose to prioritize its profits over kids’ health and safety.”
When I participated in an AHCJ CDC fellowship* earlier this year, we had a tour of the tobacco center, where cigarettes and vapes are tested for content and use. It was so interesting that I left with more questions than when I went in. The scientist who spoke with us cited many statistics, such as:
During December 2022, the prefilled cartridge market was composed of:
Tobacco – 37.3%
Menthol – 62.2%
But disposable numbers were very different. Among disposable e-cigarette sales during January 2020, the market comprised:
Tobacco – 10.5%
Menthol – 9.0%
Mint – 8.9%
Other flavors – 71.4%
Can we talk about the packaging?
You can’t tell me that these images of Elf vape packaging are not intended to target youth. Look at the vibrant colors, not to mention the style of the product itself: cute, small, fun.
The problem is so serious that JAMA Network Open published a study on fully-branded and standardized e-cigarette packaging. Among the findings, the authors wrote, “…youths had higher odds of reporting no interest in trying e-cigarettes in standardized green packaging than e-cigarettes in branded packaging…” And, if adults wanted to use vaping as a means to stop smoking, a standardized package label did not stop them from purchasing the item.
In other words, the product would still be available for its supposedly intended purpose of a stop-smoking tool, regardless of how the packaging looked, and fewer teens (or younger) would be interested in trying the product. That seems pretty clear to me.
Finally, the health issue with vaping
We’ve known for a long time that cigarette smoking is harmful, despite tobacco companies doing their best to hide that fact from the public until they no longer could. Now we seem to be faced with the same problem related to vaping. The first danger to the body is developing an addiction to nicotine. We know that this addiction is so strong that many smokers who want to quit and have tried several times, still can’t. But there are other issues too.
Many smokers and vapers puff when they are stressed or anxious. It relaxes them. But nicotine can cause anxiety as the nicotine levels decrease before the next hit. There starts a cycle.
E-cigarette solutions can contain many other substances that can be harmful to the lungs or addictive. These chemicals, also found in tobacco smoke, may include formaldehyde, acrolein, and acetaldehyde, which can cause irreversible lung damage.
Nicotine can lead to mood disorders and other mental health problems.
Vaping can lead to use of tobacco products and other addictive substances.
And that’s just what we know now. We don’t know what the health of vapers will be years down the road, like we didn’t know about tobacco.
We can’t get rid of smoking altogether and likely the same with vaping now that it’s out of the box. There are too many people who can’t break the addiction. I won’t call it a habit, because habits can be broken. It’s an addiction. But we can try to minimize the impact and stop its marketing to our youth.
I am not in any way trying to shame people who can’t stop smoking or, now, vaping. They were tricked into an addiction. I’m trying to get people not to start in the first place.
What do you think? Please leave your comments below. Let’s get a conversation going.
*This issue of the newsletter was produced with support from the Association of Health Care Journalists through its CDC fellowship.
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