First-time tobacco users go for flavours

A majority of adolescents who are puffing, vaping or chewing a tobacco product for the first time prefer one with flavour, suggesting that fruity, tangy, spicy or minty flavourings add a powerful allure to the uninitiated.

In a survey of U.S. children ages 12 to 17, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products has found that among those trying a hookah, electronic cigarette, cigar or regular cigarette for the first time, the numbers who added flavouring were 89 per cent, 81 per cent, 65 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.

In the United States, the marketing of flavoured cigarettes — with the exception of menthol — is prohibited. Canada has banned the manufacture, importation and sale of flavoured cigarettes.

But when adolescents were asked about their use of a tobacco product over the past 30 days, large majorities underscored that flavourings continued to play a role in their enjoyment of tobacco products. Asked about their tobacco use in the preceding month, 89 per cent among hookah users said they had used flavoured tobacco, 85 per cent of e-cigarette users did so, 72 per cent among users of any cigar type and 60 per cent among cigarette smokers.

The study offers new insights into what paves the way for an estimated 3,200 American kids each day to try tobacco for the first time. A lifetime tobacco habit is overwhelmingly started in the teen and young adult years, and regulators are keen to blunt that appeal.

New evidence that flavourings play a key role in introducing would-be tobacco users to the product is sure to spark renewed debate.

“In addition to continued proven tobacco control and prevention strategies, efforts to decrease use of flavoured tobacco products among youth should be considered,” the authors wrote.