Restricting the choice of flavoured vapes would lead ex-smokers back to the deadly habit, a new study has found.
Countries around the world are increasingly banning the sale of flavoured e-liquids, allowing only tobacco and menthol flavours. The aim is to help reduce the appeal of vapes to children and young people.
However, new research by the University of Bristol suggests the move will have an adverse effect on adults who use vapes as a tool to quit or cut down on smoking.
Jasmine Khouja, the study’s lead author and lecturer at Bristol’s School of Psychological Science and a member of the University’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group (TARG), said: “While flavour restrictions might reduce youth vaping, our interview responses suggest that they could also discourage adults from using e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking, potentially leading those who vape return to smoking and leading more people who currently smoke to continue smoking.
“There are also concerns that people may try to get flavours from abroad or make their own flavours, which may expose them to toxicants or chemicals that have not been approved for use in vapes.
“Policymakers need to consider these varied impacts if the UK government decides to ban flavours in vapes.“
Responses to unflavoured vapes
The study set out to understand how UK adults who smoke or used to smoke and now use flavoured vapes feel about unflavoured e-liquids, and how restrictions would impact them.
Researchers recruited 24 adults aged between 19 and 62 years. Of these, 12 adults smoked daily (alongside vaping) and 12 adults vaped daily but had stopped smoking within a year prior to the study.
The group included two adults who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day and two adults who vaped daily but used to smoke 20 or more cigarettes per day.
Participants were asked to use an unflavoured vape for four hours instead of their usual flavoured e-liquid. They were then asked, in a survey and an in-person interview, how they felt about using them again.
‘Not an enjoyable experience’
Some said they were unaffected by the lack of flavours, but the majority said they would be put off using them again.
The study says: “If only unflavoured, tobacco flavoured, and menthol flavoured e-liquids remained on the UK market, some people who smoke or vape may be unaffected, but some may relapse to smoking or continue smoking.”
Several participants said the unflavoured e-liquid satisfied their cravings for nicotine, but that they did not enjoy the experience. When one was asked “did you enjoy using it?”, they responded, “I kind of did in a way, because […] it’s satisfying a craving, the craving for nicotine, […] but the thing that I disliked really was the fact that it’s unflavoured”.
Another said the e-liquid “quelled the, the want for […] nicotine generally, but I, I didn’t enjoy the experience, which I would normally with the flavoured stuff.”
Some participants also commented on the similarities between smoking and using the unflavoured e-liquid, with the sensation more “harsh” than with flavoured vapes.
The study, published in the Harm Reduction Journal, says that participants generally had no expectations or negative expectations prior to using the unflavoured e-liquid.
It says: “Where participants had no expectations, it was usually because they had not heard of unflavoured e-liquids. [One participant] stated.. “I didn’t really have an opinion I just thought, ‘this is going to be horrible’”.
The report concludes that most participants believed a flavour ban would negatively impact smoking cessation efforts more than it would prevent young people from vaping.
It says: “The findings highlight that people who smoke and vape could be impacted by flavour restrictions in a range of ways, some of which could have a potential adverse impact on harm reduction efforts in the UK (e.g., by making smoking more appealing than vaping).”
