Yale Study: Flavor Vape Bans May Push More Teens Toward Cigarettes

On June 9, a new study took a different stance on the flavor tobacco ban in San Francisco. A researcher from Yale University stated that the flavor ban policy may push teenagers toward smoking combustible cigarettes.

The study, titled "Analysis of Differences in Youth Smoking and the Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products in San Francisco, California," was authored by Dr. Abigail Friedman, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health and the Yale Institute for Social and Policy Studies.

Friedman is a respected scholar and one of the leading experts in tobacco harm reduction and control.

According to the study's findings, the ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products implemented in San Francisco, California, has harmed the rate at which youth transition to smoking or other potentially more harmful nicotine delivery methods.

"Compared to other school districts, the ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products in San Francisco is associated with an increase in smoking rates among underage high school students," Friedman concluded in the study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

"Although the policy applies to all tobacco products, the impact may be greater for youth e-cigarette users due to the higher prevalence of flavored tobacco use among them."

"This raises concerns that reducing the use of flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems may incentivize young people who would have otherwise used e-cigarettes instead of smoking. In fact, analyses of the relationship between the minimum legal sales age for electronic nicotine delivery systems and youth smoking also indicate this substitution effect."

Friedman told reporters: "While smoking and using nicotine are not safe, most current evidence suggests that the harms of smoking are much greater, with nearly one in five adults dying from smoking each year."

"Even well-intentioned laws that increase youth smoking may pose a threat to public health."