New York City Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Queens) wants to ban flavored electronic cigarettes. For the children.
“These flavors are direct marketing to children,” he told the Daily News. “They appeal to children, and we’re taking them out of that market.”
The councilman’s crusade — which ignores the fact that it’s already illegal to sell e-cigs to minors — reflects two misconceptions that are common among critics who portray e-cigarettes as a menace to the youth of America.
They think vaping leads to smoking, and they assume any flavor other than tobacco is strictly for kids. Based on these myths, they push measures that would undermine public health
instead of promoting it.
As Constantinides would be quick to tell you, the percentage of teenagers who report trying e-cigarettes has risen sharply in recent years. Between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, “the percentage of high school students who had used e-cigarettes more than doubled from 4.7% to 10%.”
But trying a product is not the same as using it regularly, and more than 90% of the teenagers who had tried e-cigarettes were already smokers. If anything, these survey results suggest that some teenagers may end up switching from smoking to vaping, thereby reducing the health hazards they face.
In a 2013 survey of 1,300 college students, only one respondent reported trying e-cigarettes before smoking the conventional kind. “It didn't seem as though it really proved to be a gateway to anything,” said the lead researcher. Consistent with that observation, the NYTS and the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey both show that smoking among teenagers fell as vaping rose.
