Bans on Flavoured Vapes Would Push Some Users Back to Smoking

In line with previous findings, a recent study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, found that most vapers would turn back to smoking if flavoured vaping products were banned.

Diane Caruana

June 3, 2022

Approximately one in five vapers said they would stop vaping and start smoking if a flavour ban was set in place.

Titled “Responses to potential nicotine vaping product flavor restrictions among regular vapers using non-tobacco flavors: Findings from the 2020 ITC Smoking and Vaping Survey in Canada, England and the United States,” the current study was conducted by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Waterloo.

The research team looked into whether regular vapers from Canada, England and the US who use only flavoured e-cigarettes, would be in favour or against a flavour ban, and how they would be likely to respond to such a policy.

“Our study helps to fill the gaps in evidence of the possible impact of e-cigarette flavour bans, following from other studies that have predicted how smokers respond to tobacco control policies such as tax increases and menthol bans,” said study co-author Professor Geoffrey Fong.

82% of the 851 participants oppose a ban on flavours

The compiled data indicated that 82% of the 851 participants (all of which were regular vapers) oppose a ban on flavoured vaping products, 13% are in favour and 5% are unsure. When asked how they would react to a ban 57% said they would carry on vaping. Half of these said they would switch to any available legal flavour and the other half said they would find a way to obtain their preferred flavour(s) after the ban.

Moreover, approximately one in five vapers said they would stop vaping and start smoking instead, with 13% reporting that they did not know what they would do. “Our findings raise the possibility that banning some flavoured vaping products may dissuade some adult smokers from vaping, with the possibility that they would return to smoking cigarettes, which are clearly much more harmful than vaping products, given that we know that at least half of regular smokers die of a smoking-caused disease,” said lead study author and ITC research assistant professor Shannon Gravely.