‘Reduce youth use’: proposed ban on ‘entertainment’ vaporizers

Pictured are Prue Talbot (left) and Man Wong.

Vaping shouldn’t be fun in New York State.

That’s the basic message of new legislation recently introduced by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal of New York. A.10713 would amend the state’s public health law to ban the sale of what Rosenthal called entertainment products.

Last year, they started introducing vaping devices with a digital screen that showed how long the device’s battery would last. Within a few months, ready-made video games began appearing on digital screens – an addition that caught the attention of two professors at the University of California, Riverside.

“Our lab is constantly monitoring the electronic cigarette market for new devices, especially those aimed at adolescents and young adults,” said Man Wong, first author of the paper and a lab assistant at Prue Talbot, a professor at the university’s graduate school. “On one of these devices, Craftbox V-Play, you can run Pac-Man, Tetris and F22 – classic arcade games. Other devices we found disturbing include vaporizers with digital games that encourage users to vape, vaporizers with animations that change as the user inhales, vaporizers with built-in Bluetooth and the ability to personalize with personal photos, and vaporizers with celebrity endorsements that they offer promotions on trading cards.”

Talbot and Wong believe new devices must be closely monitored and regulated. They report that unlike previous versions of electronic cigarettes, smart vaporizers prey on three potential addictions: nicotine addiction, gaming disorder and obsession with screen time. Talbot and Wong hope their research will encourage the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies to regulate the sale of these devices.

Scientists warn that these products are user-friendly and attractive to young people, so they may link nicotine addiction with gaming disorder.

Researchers are particularly concerned that linking nicotine to existing youth behaviors, such as video gaming and screen time, could expand the market for smart electronic cigarettes to include youth previously uninterested in nicotine products, while also increasing nicotine addiction among existing users.

Rosenthal agrees. A New York Assembly member wants New York State to act quickly to ban the sale of the devices before they gain a significant foothold in New York. The bill could be discussed during next year’s state legislative session.

“Big tobacco’s latest ploy to attract a new generation of customers is to sell ‘entertainment products’, e-cigarettes with ‘fun’ and trendy features such as Bluetooth, internet connectivity, digital screens for displaying photos and animations, and virtual games for play directly on the device,” Rosenthal wrote in her legislative justification. “These products attract users with their features and encourage them to continue. vaping by “gamifying” the experience and offering rewards to those who continue to use the product. Just as New York State has banned vapor products that appeal to children through flavors and flashy marketing, it’s time to provide the same protection against products that seek to combine vaping with the features of a video game or smartphone. This legislation would prohibit the sale of entertainment products in the state and establish civil penalties for any retailers found in violation.

Vaping is the newest form of recreational vaping, as fewer high school students admit to vaping than at any time since 2014, according to the latest federal statistics. The latest survey data shows the rate of vaping among teens has dropped to less than 6% this year, down from 7.7% in 2023. More than 1.6 million students reported vaping in the previous month — about a third of the number in 2019 .when underage vaping reaches an all-time high According to the Associated Press, the use of discreet, high-nicotine e-cigarettes such as Juul.

Officials said this year’s decline was mainly due to a half-million drop in high school students who reported using e-cigarettes in the past month. Vaping has not changed among middle school students, but remains less common among this group at 3.5% of students.

“This is a monumental public health victory,” FDA Tobacco Products Director Brian King told reporters. “But we cannot rest on our laurels. There is clearly more work to be done to further reduce youth use of services.”

Officials from the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have attributed the large decline in vaping to recent age restrictions and more aggressive enforcement of the law against retailers and manufacturers, including Chinese vaping companies that have been illegally selling their e-cigarettes in the U.S. for years.

Use of the most popular e-cigarette among teens, Elf Bar, dropped 36% following FDA warning letters to stores and distributors selling the brightly colored vape, available in flavors such as watermelon ice and peach mango. The brand is part of the wave of cheap, disposable e-cigarettes from China, which have taken over a large part of the American vaping market. The FDA tried to block such imports, although Elf Bar and other brands tried to find workarounds by changing their names, addresses and logos.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.