The success of flavored nicotine products among young people

The American organization Truth Initiative draws up an inventory of the consumption of flavored tobacco and nicotine products among American adolescents and young adults.[1].

Adolescents and young adults use more flavored tobacco and nicotine products than other age groups. Studies show that flavors play a major role in youth initiation and use of tobacco and vaping products.

Flavors play a role in the initiation of nicotine products

Studies show that younger people prefer sweet tastes and smells, which explains the attraction to flavored products, especially fruity flavors.[2]. Flavors play a major role in youth initiation and use of tobacco and vaping products. Despite a reduction in youth initiation of nicotine-containing products in recent years,[3], overall consumption of these products remains high due to the popularity of flavored products. 6.2 million middle and high school students in the U.S. reported using tobacco and vaping products in 2019, including 4.3 million consumers of flavored products[4].

That is, nearly 7 out of 10 adolescents in the country, aged 12 to 17, are consumers of these flavoured nicotine products.[5].

The importance of this consumption among young people was apparent from the 2017 survey. The latter indicated that 73.1% of young adults (18 to 24 years old) reported consuming these products v/ 28.6% of those over 65 years old.[6].

Youth perceptions of flavored products

Adolescents and young adults perceive flavored tobacco and nicotine products as more appealing, tastier, and less harmful than unflavored products[7]. Youth also perceived flavored e-cigarettes as less harmful than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.[8].

A focus group of young adult hookah smokers showed that participants found the wide variety of hookah flavors appealing and liked being able to customize their smoking experience by mixing and personalizing flavors[9]. In addition, young adults perceive hookah as less harmful and less addictive than cigarettes.[10]-[11]The flavors present in cigars and cigarillos also maintain a distorted perception of the dangerousness of these tobacco products.[12]-[13]Young adults consider flavored cigars/cigarillos less harmful and more pleasant to smoke than unflavored ones.[14].

A consequence of the tobacco industry's targeted marketing

Internal industry documents made public by court order show that tobacco manufacturers have integrated the offering of flavored products as a "starter" product into their development and marketing strategy. These are particularly attractive to adolescents and young adults.. For tobacco products, flavors mask the harshness of the smoke. They give a sweeter and milder taste to the product, reminiscent of worlds such as confectionery. This greatly facilitates the introduction to the consumption of these products and young people who try them quickly become addicted.

Tobacco companies aggressively market flavored products by emphasizing flavors in their advertising, placing them in strategic locations at points of sale, using colorful images on packaging, and introducing new limited-edition flavors.

Photo credit : ©Truth Initiative Keywords: Flavors, youth, initiation, nicotine, United States ©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] Truth Initiative, Fact sheet: Flavored tobacco use among youth and young adults, June 28, 2021, accessed June 30, 2021 [2] Hoffman AC, Salgado RV, Dresler C, Faller RW, Bartlett C. Flavor preferences in youth versus adults: a review. Tobacco control. 2016;25(Suppl 2):ii32-ii39. [3] Ambrose, BK, et al., “Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among US Youth Aged 12-17 Years, 2013-2014,” Journal of the American Medical Association, published online October 26, 2015. [4] Rose, S, et al., Flavor types used by youth and adult tobacco users in wave 2 of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study 2015-2015,” Tobacco Control, published online September 21, 2019. Additional national data from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) found that 64.1% of current middle and high school tobacco users had used a flavored tobacco product in the past month. Cullen, KA, et al., “Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students—United States, 2014-2018,” MMWR, 68(39): 839-844, October 4, 2019, https://www. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/pdfs/mm6839a2-H.pdf [5] Wang TW, Gentzke AS, Creamer MR, et al. Tobacco Product Use and Associated Factors Among Middle and High School Students - United States, 2019. Morbidity and mortality weekly report Surveillance summaries (Washington, DC: 2002). 2019;68(12):1-22 [6] Villanti AC, Johnson AL, Ambrose BK, et al. Flavored Tobacco Product Use in Youth and Adults: Findings From the First Wave of the PATH Study (2013-2014). American journal of preventive medicine. 2017. [7] Huang LL, Baker HM, Meernik C, Ranney LM, Richardson A, Goldstein AO. Impact of non-menthol flavors in tobacco products on perceptions and use among youth, young adults and adults: a systematic review. Tobacco control. 2016. [8] Ibid [9] Castaneda G, Barnett TE, Soule EK, Young ME. Hookah smoking behavior initiation in the context of Millennials. Public health. 2016;137:124-130 [10] Akl EA, Gaddam S, Gunukula SK, Honeine R, Jaoude PA, Irani J. The effects of waterpipe tobacco smoking on health outcomes: a systematic review. Int J Epidemiol. 2010;39(3):834-857 [11] Primack BA, Sidani J, Agarwal AA, Shadel WG, Donny EC, Eissenberg TE. Prevalence of and associations with waterpipe tobacco smoking among US university students. Ann Behav Med. 2008;36(1):81-86. [12] Soldz S, Dorsey E. Youth attitudes and beliefs toward alternative tobacco products: cigars, bidis, and kreteks. Health education & behavior: the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education. 2005;32(4):549-566. [13] Malone RE, Yerger V, Pearson C. Cigar risk perceptions in focus groups of urban African American youth. Journal of substance abuse. 2001;13(4):549-561. [14] Borawski EA, Brooks A, Colabianchi N, et al. Adult use of cigars, little cigars, and cigarillos in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: a cross-sectional study. Nicotine & tobacco research: official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. 2010;12(6):669-673. National Committee Against Smoking |