Vaping teens cite low cost, flavours for why they tried e-cigarettes

The report published in the medical journal Pediatrics on Monday foundthat some of the reasons prompting teenagers to try thebattery-operated devices, which heat liquids typically lacedwith nicotine to deliver vapour, help to predict ongoing use.

• E-cigarette use increasing amongst teens:Canadianstudy
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The ongoing Connecticut-based study was based on surveys intwo middle schools and three high schools in the fall of 2013and spring of 2014. About 340 of the 2,100 students surveyed hadused e-cigarettes.

Younger vapersmore likely to continue

More than half the youngsters said they tried the devicesbecause they were curious, 41.8 per cent cited "good flavours" andalmost a third because their friends used them. About a quartersaid vaping was healthier than traditional cigarettes.

"The younger the kids were when they started, the morelikely they were to keep using them," said Krysten W. Bold, apostdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Medicine and one ofthe authors of the report.

The researchers said they hoped policymakers would use thefindings to address the growing popularity of the devices, whichhave prompted warnings about their potential health risks.

"If we could identify early who would still be using e-cigssix months from now, we could intervene at that early stage,"Bold said.

In June, Canadian researchers who studied 230students in Grade 9 inOntario who use e-cigarettes also found that75 per cent did not use them for their intended use: to help kick nicotine addiction.

In Canada, e-cigarettes and "e-juice" containing nicotine have not been approved for sale.

Since the study was conducted, most provinces have created legislation around the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes.

Meanwhile, the e-cigarette market in the U.S. issuddenly getting more crowded.

Makers of the "vaping" devices launched a flood of newproducts in the United States ahead of new federal regulations,taking effect on Monday, that require companies to submite-cigarettes for government approval before marketing them,according to company officials and industry experts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which announced theregulations in May, will allow e-cigarette devices introducedbefore the regulations came into force to be sold for up tothree years while companies apply and await regulatory review.

The U.S. regulations also ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyoneunder age 18. The multibillion-dollar industry had sought todelay the new rules through lawsuits and proposed legislation inthe U.S. Congress. At the same time, many of the smaller playershedged their bets by releasing new products during thethree-month period between the announcement of the regulationsand their effective date.