The attractiveness of e-cigarettes is worrying, because e-cigarettes are harmful to health, write the researchers behind the study.
Flavored e-cigarettes are particularly attractive, even to young people. That's why the Dutch government introduced a ban that limits the range of e-cigarette products to only tobacco flavors and unflavored alternatives.
The researchers have examined how the ban affects people who vaped when flavors were allowed. Use has decreased significantly.
22 percent have responded that they have quit completely. Most of them (73%) have not used any substitute product. 40% have cut back on vaping.
Six percent of all respondents said they started smoking cigarettes, attributing this to the ban on e-cigarette flavors. Yet the overall prevalence of cigarette smoking decreased by 8 percentage points, indicating that more users quit than started using a substitute product, the researchers write.
Despite the flavor ban, many people still get their hands on flavored e-cigarettes. The use of flavored e-cigarettes decreased by 44 percentage points after the ban.
Among those who continued to use banned flavors, the largest group (36%) purchased them in physical stores abroad.
To achieve greater political impact of the ban, the researchers recommend that other countries also introduce similar regulations or other strategies that make it more difficult to purchase the products.
Footnote:
The study is a retrospective cross-sectional survey. It was conducted nine months after the ban came into effect. Approximately half of the participants were young adults (13-24 years old) and half were adults (25 years old and older).
