Teens Vape for Flavors, Not Nicotine

Why are American teenagers eager to try e-cigarettes? A new study shows that they are most interested in the flavors of vaping products, rather than nicotine.

Led by Richard Miech, a research team from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research tracked nearly 15,000 students who responded to a national survey in the U.S. in 2015.

Among students in grades 8, 10, and 12—over 3,800 reported that they had used e-cigarettes at some point.

Of those who used e-cigarettes in the past month, more than 1,700 did so at least once; nearly 1,100 did it five times; and over 600 had done it more than half a dozen times, the results showed.

Among students who had ever used e-cigarettes, two-thirds used non-nicotine products, utilizing flavored components, according to the survey.

Nicotine ranked a distant second: 13% of eighth graders, 20% of tenth graders, and 22% of twelfth graders reported using it.

Relatively few students had tried marijuana vaping—only 6% of all students, the study found.

This finding suggests that efforts to reduce e-cigarette use among youth may fail if they focus on the dangers of nicotine, as most teenage users do not believe they are using nicotine, according to the researchers.

“These results suggest that while considering the use of [e-cigarettes], the impact of [e-cigarettes] on increasing tobacco/nicotine prevalence may not be as significant as the recent sharp increase in youth usage suggests,” Miech and his colleagues wrote.

However, an expert on vaping and smoking questioned the survey's findings.

“While I appreciate the survey results, I question whether teenagers actually know for sure what they are inhaling contains nicotine or not,” said Patricia Cheever. She pointed to the Northwell Health Great Neck, New York Center for Tobacco Control.

“There are nearly 500 types of vaping devices, and the ingredients in these devices are not always known and do not always appear on product labels,” she said. “Therefore, I would expect more teenagers to report that they do not know what substances they are vaping.”

Cheever also believes there are no “harmless” e-cigarettes.

“Even without nicotine, inhaling products with flavoring agents can damage lung tissue and should not be considered safe for teenagers or adults,” she said.

This study was published online in the journal Tobacco Control on August 25.