Research has confirmed that restricting e-liquid flavours may discourage smokers from switching to the proven safer alternatives which could save their life.
Last month Hawaii lawmakers introduced SB 1009, a bill which would have banned “tastes or aromas relating to any candy, chocolate, vanilla, honey, fruit, cocoa, coffee, dessert, alcoholic beverage, menthol, mint, wintergreen, herb, or spice.” The aim of the bill was to “reduce tobacco-related health disparities and address the youth vaping epidemic.”
Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, said that the rise in teen vaping is a “really tough issue”. However the committee deferred the bill and passed another one which would raise fines for underage possession of e-cigarettes and raise taxes on vaping products.
Rep. Scot Matayoshi said that in his opinion raising fines will help deter teens from vaping. “I don’t feel like that the rights of adults to smoke flavored e-cig liquid outweighs our obligation to protect kids from getting addicted to a substance that’s made to be addicting,” he said.
Most adult smokers vape flavoured e-liquids
Meanwhile, a recent large scale peer reviewed study published in the Harm Reduction Journal last Summer, seemed to confirm that restricting e-liquid flavours may discourage smokers from switching to the proven safer alternatives which could save their life.
This study was conducted by the Centre for Substance Use Research (CSUR), and looked at data gathered from over 20,000 adult frequent vapers in the US. “The results show that non-tobacco flavours, especially fruit based flavours, are being increasingly preferred to tobacco flavours by adult vapers who have completely switched from combustible cigarettes to vapour products,” said Dr Christopher Russell, Deputy Director of CSUR, who led the research.
Read Further: Star Advertiser
California gets even crazier despite mounting evidence against gateway theory
