Banning or steaming flavored tobacco products can lead teens to smoke

Public health advocates celebrated when San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a voting bill banning the sale of flavored tobacco products in 2018. After all, the use of tobacco poses a significant threat to public health and health fairness, and flavors are especially attractive to young people.

However, according to a new study by the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), the law may have had the opposite effect. According to the analysis, the probability that high school students will smoke traditional cigarettes after the ban is implemented is in San Francisco, even when adjusted for individual demographics and other tobacco policies, compared to trends in non-banned districts. It has doubled in the school district. This study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is believed to be the first study to evaluate how a complete flavor ban affects adolescents’ smoking habits.

“These findings suggest a need for caution,” said Abigail Friedman, author of the study and assistant professor of health policy at YSPH. “Neither smoking cigarettes nor nicotine that smokes are safe in their own right, but most of the current evidence shows considerable harm from smoking, which causes one in five adults to die each year. Smoking can pose a threat to public health. “

Friedman used data on high school students under the age of 18 from the 2011-2019 school district survey of the Youth Risk Behavior Monitoring System. Prior to the ban, smoking rates in San Francisco and comparative school districts over the past 30 days were similar and declining. However, with the full flavor ban in 2019, smoking prevalence in San Francisco increased as smoking prevalence in comparative areas continued to decline, unlike trends observed elsewhere.

To explain these results, Friedman said that electronic nicotine delivery systems have been the most popular tobacco products among young people in the United States since at least 2014, and flavor options are the predominant preference. I did.

“Think about the tastes of young people. Some steam-breathing children prefer e-cigarettes to flammable tobacco products because of their flavor,” she said. “For these individuals and those who have the potential to become vapors with similar tastes, banning flavors removes the main motivation for choosing vapor over smoking and pushes some back to traditional tobacco. There is a possibility.”

These findings affect Connecticut, where the state legislature is currently considering two flavor bills. House Bill 6450 bans the sale of flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems, and Senate Bill 326 bans the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Both bills could result in a Connecticut policy similar to the full ban enacted in San Francisco, as the US Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it would ban all flammable tobacco product flavors during the next year.

San Francisco research has its limits. Due to the short period of time the ban has been implemented, trends may vary over the next few years. San Francisco is also just one of several regions and states that have restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco, and there are significant differences between these laws. Therefore, the effect can be different elsewhere, Friedman wrote.

Nevertheless, as similar restrictions continue to emerge across the country, findings should be taken care by policy makers not to indirectly impose minors on tobacco in their quest to reduce vaping. She said it suggests.

What does she suggest as an alternative? “If Connecticut decides to make changes before the FDA’s ban on flammable products comes into effect, good candidates may limit the sale of all tobacco products to adults only, that is, retailers over the age of 21. No, “she said. “This allows children to be exposed to accidental tobacco products at convenience stores and gas stations and those of adolescents without increasing the incentive to choose more deadly flammable products than non-flammable options such as e-cigarettes. You can significantly reduce access to. “

Follow more stories above Facebook And twitter

This story was published from a news agency feed without changing the text. Only the heading has changed.