Effect of flavored E-cigarette bans in the United States: What does the evidence show?

The United States federal government, along with many state and local governments, have passed restrictions on electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) sales with the stated purpose of preventing youth use of these products. The justification for these restrictions includes the argument that youth e-cigarette use will re-normalize youth smoking, leading to increased rates of cigarette smoking by teenagers. However, in this paper, we propose an evidence-based version of this model based on several years' worth of longitudinal and econometric research, which suggests that youth e-cigarette use has instead worked to replace a culture of youth smoking. From this analysis, we propose a re-evaluation of current policies surrounding e-cigarette sales so that declines in ecigarette use will not come at the cost of increasing cigarette use among youth and adults.

Automated summary

The US federal government and many state and local governments have passed regulations to restrict the sales of electronic cigarettes, aiming to prevent youth smoking. However, this paper proposes a evidence-based model that suggests e-cigarettes have replaced the culture of youth smoking. Therefore, a re-evaluation of current policies is needed to ensure that the decrease in e-cigarette use does not lead to an increase in smoking rates.