E-cigarettes
A man smokes an electronic cigarette vaporizer, also known as an e-cigarette, in Toronto, August 7, 2015. Many of the world's junior miners are laying down their picks and shovels to start new ventures ranging from egg exporting to e-cigarette company, as they as try to survive a crash in metals prices by shifting away from exploration. Picture taken on August 7, 2015. Reuters/Mark Blinch

According to a US study released on Monday, young people keep vaping due to e-cigarettes’ low cost after being attracted by their alluring flavours. The young generation are increasingly trying e-cigarettes due to their curiosity and flavours that range from pizza to fairy floss to cotton candy.

Published in journal Pediatrics, the report found that youngsters are increasingly citing low cost of e-cigarettes and a desire to quit smoking as reasons for vaping. The study was conducted by Yale School of Medicine researchers.

As per the National Youth Tobacco Survey, about 16 percent of the nation’s high school students were using e-cigarettes in 2015. In 2013, a study of Connecticut middle and high school e-cigarette users revealed that curiosity, peer pressure and attractive flavours were the primary drivers for vaping.

The Yale researchers, led by Krysten Bold, postdoctoral fellow, and Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, professor of psychiatry tracked e-cigarette use in those youngsters six months later and found that those who had said that they took to vaping due to the low cost involved and for their desire to quit smoking, were continuing to vape.

Moreover, those who started smoking e-cigarettes to quit smoking were 14 times more likely to continue vaping. The researchers said that long-term benefits to using e-cigarettes to quit smoking are still unclear as 80 percent of the youth who started vaping in order to quit smoking were continuing to smoke cigarettes even after six months.

“Increasing the cost of e-cigarettes might be one policy that could be used to reduce vaping in this age group. E-cigarette use is a major public health issue, and understanding use among youth is critical to inform youth-directed prevention efforts,” Bold said in a statement.

The researchers are currently studying evidence from the third longitudinal study of the same group completed in 2015.

The battery-operated devices that heat liquids laced with nicotine to produce vapour are a big draw also because smokers can use them in places where smoking is banned.

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