Restricting Youth E-Cigarette Use
“The perceptions of low e-cigarette risk of adolescents and young adults combined with few market regulations and the appeal of youth-friendly flavors, have created ideal conditions for the e-cigarette industry to thrive and place millions of youth at risk of developing an addiction to nicotine. Policies and regulations aiming to prevent youth-directed marketing and sales of e-cigarette and all nicotine delivery products are needed to protect young people. Public health-led education campaigns and educational curricula are also needed to help inform youth and families about the risks of e-cigarette use… Although the harms of e-cigarette use and secondhand aerosol exposure remain only partially understood, e-cigarettes should not be recommended for smoking cessation for AYAs [adolescents and young adults], given the lack of evidence of effectiveness, potential effects on brain development and physical health, and risk for increased use of tobacco products and other substances.”
Position paper: Protecting Youth from the Risks of Electronic Cigarettes of Adolescent Health; Available online 25 November 2019
The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(19)30506-3/fulltext
Comment by Stephen Hamann
I’ve underlined words in the quote above about youth becoming addicted to nicotine from e-cigarettes because it is not that youth are at risk of addiction, but that they have successfully become addicted. Therefore, new regulations of e-cigarettes should eliminate that possibility. The attempt to protect teens through advertising bans and age restrictions hasn’t worked. What must be done when regulatory capacity is weak to control youth use of these products? Proposed bans in India and Bangladesh suggest steps necessary in Asia.
by Dr.Stephen Hamann
