E-cigarette Candy Flavors Can Tempt Teens to Try Smoking

Source from:  The Morning Call  07/25/2014

Cotton candy, chocolate cake, cookies and cream, peach, grape, piña colada and gummy bear. These candy-like flavors sound like treats to satisfy a child's sweet tooth. To the surprise of many, these are just a few of the choices that manufacturers offer for the cartridges of e-cigarettes, and youths are continuing to "vape" on them more and more.

Initially developed by a pharmacist in China with the theoretical intent of giving smokers the nicotine they crave from regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes have rapidly proliferated worldwide. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that convert liquid cartridges of nicotine into vapor inhaled by the user. Many people have questioned whether e-cigarettes are safe, and others have found that they still contain some carcinogens.

Teens and adolescents have become increasingly targeted in the marketing scheme of e-cigarettes, despite denials from manufacturers.

The fact that the manufacturers have introduced flavors that appeal to children, however, implies that they do indirectly attempt to bring teens on board. These ads are astonishingly similar to ads for regular cigarettes that have been banned for many years.

Pennsylvania is not one of them. While legislation has been proposed in the state, it is stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

What's even more alarming is that adolescents can purchase e-cigarettes online without having to verify that they are at least 18. This gives even the youngest children the ability to buy e-cigarettes. To date, e-cigarettes are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, although the agency proposes to expand its oversight to e-cigarettes. Until then, the companies are free to promote exotic flavors, which may lure youths, instead of discussing the addictive qualities of nicotine.

It is clearly established that conventional cigarette use causes cancer and heart disease. In a 2012 report by the National Youth Tobacco Survey, teens who reported using e-cigarettes had higher odds of experimenting with cigarettes and becoming established smokers. With continued use, teens have a high chance of becoming addicted to nicotine. Youths who smoke e-cigarettes may well replenish the ranks of older cigarette smokers who ultimately die of cancer or heart disease.

Each day, 3,000 adolescents and teenagers in the U.S. smoke their first cigarette. The 4,800 chemicals and 69 known carcinogens in cigarettes are chemicals, some of which are used in products to clean your house or car, not to be used in your body. For this reason, nearly every 8 seconds, someone in the world dies from tobacco use.

If e-cigarette use continues to grow among minors, more of them will eventually start smoking conventional cigarettes or using other tobacco products and embark on a path toward adverse health consequences. This is something our country can hardly afford. Smoking-related illnesses cost the U.S. health care system nearly $289 billion a year, and the average lifelong smoker lives about 14 years less than the average nonsmoker.

E-cigarette manufactures are part of a multibillion dollar industry that is growing sales by more than 40 percent annually. This should not be at the expense of our youth as they grow into the next generation of adults. Enditem