In a recently published article in JAMA Pediatrics, a team of researchers at Yale University examined the move of elected officials to ban the use of flavored vaping, a product regarded as very popular among children.
The Yale team uncovered that the ban on flavored vaping in San Francisco, California may have led to an increase in cigarette use among teenagers.
“These findings suggest a need for caution,” said one author of the study in a press release.
“While neither smoking cigarettes nor vaping nicotine are safe per se, the bulk of current evidence indicates substantially greater harms from smoking, which is responsible for nearly one in five adult deaths annually. Even if it is well-intentioned, a law that increases youth smoking could pose a threat to public health.”
To reach those findings, the data of high school students was probed, assessing smoking rates in San Francisco.
But in spite of the findings, the study did have limitations.
“The San Francisco study does have limitations. Because there has been only a short time since the ban was implemented, the trend may differ in coming years. San Francisco is also just one of several localities and states that have implemented restrictions on flavored tobacco sales, with extensive differences between these laws. Thus, effects may differ in other places,” said a co-author of the study in the press release.
The study is dubbed as a first of its kind to thoroughly assess how complete flavor bans impact smoking habits among children.
