Flavor, peer pressure, “cool” factor among reasons teens start vaping
There are many reasons why people decide to vape. E-juice — a heated and flavored nicotine liquid that produces vapor — comes in sweet flavors such as cotton candy and the vapor produced does not give off the same strong odor as traditional cigarettes.
It is these characteristics and more that may be the reason why middle and high school aged kids pick up a vape pen despite health concerns.
According to David Anderson, a retired Healdsburg physician, kids may start vaping for a variety of reasons. The biggest factors that may lead kids to vaping include peer pressure/seeing friends vape, the “cool” factor, flavored e-juice, misinformation and a user-friendly factor.
While e-cigarettes contain an unhealthy mix of chemicals such as those found in antifreeze as well as carcinogens, Anderson said, “If your buddy is doing it, then you may be more likely to do it.”
Anderson also talked about the “cool” factor, saying in his experience, when something is a “no-no” for kids, it makes them want that item even more.
“They are thought to be ‘cool’ or whatever is the current terminology, as they are considered a ‘no-no’ item so they are thus ‘cool,’” Anderson said.
Terese Voge, Sonoma County health program manager of Impact Sonoma, said for kids e-cigs are like a novelty.
Yet flavored vape liquid is perhaps the biggest contributing factor.
“Flavor increases appeal,” Anderson said.
Current flavors on the market include peppermint, coffee, lemon tart, candy crash and more.
According to the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, “More than half of teens who vape say they do it because they like the flavors that e-cigarette liquids come in.”
“The research definitely shows that it is a huge factor,” Voge said of flavored e-cigarette liquid.
According to research from the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, when Southern California adults and youth were asked why they used e-cigarettes the No. 1 reason was because they “come in flavors.” “They taste better,” was the second selected reason.
However, Anderson added that kids can also become misinformed on how dangerous vaping really is which, may lead kids to think that vaping is OK.
According to an article from the Truth Initiative, an organization that aims to encourage tobacco free lives, 63% of Juul (an e-cigarette brand) users do not know that the product always contains nicotine.
Voge mentioned that kids don’t often even think of them as tobacco.
She added that a lot of them do not know that e-cigs contain nicotine.
Lastly, Anderson said that vape products are often easy for students to use during school since the vapor does not give off a strong smell.
Anderson mentioned that a high school nurse observed that when kids come back from vaping they don’t smell, making it easier to use without getting caught.
Anderson, who worked with the city of Healdsburg to raise the purchase age for tobacco products to age 21, said with vape products becoming more popularized his work to decrease tobacco use among younger kids has somewhat reversed.
“We accomplished a lot by making California the second state (after Hawaii) to raise the purchase age for all tobacco products to 21. But now this accomplishment is being eroded by … these e-cigs,” Anderson said.
