Flavor ban counterproductive

A ban on all flavored vapor products would increase the number of cigarette smokers, as 8.3 percent of vapers would switch to cigarettes and 3 percent would quit altogether, according to a study led by John Buckell of Yale University in Connecticut, USA.

Buckell surveyed 2,031 adult American smokers and recent quitters about their preferences for flavors and other attributes to assess the net impact of various policy proposals, such as banning flavors in vapor products, prohibiting menthol cigarettes or outlawing both.

He found that a ban on only menthol cigarettes would cut the number of cigarette smokers by 4.8 percent—1.3 percent would stop smoking altogether and the use of vapor products would rise by 3.5 percent.

Prohibiting both menthol cigarettes and flavored vapor products would result in the overall number of smokers declining by 5.2 percent.

Currently, vapor products are available in over 7,000 flavors in the U.S., whereas all flavors but menthol are banned in combustible cigarettes.

The FDA recently requested a ban on flavored vapor products, but the proposal was rejected. The FDA is again considering this ban and also a ban on menthol in combustible cigarettes, but there is little information on the impacts of alternative bans on the market for combustibles and vapor products.