The UK’s advertising watchdog has claimed there is no evidence e-cigarette companies are preying on children, the Daily Mail reports. The announcement sparked controversy as a new documentary exposed the colorful packaging and sweet candy flavors of some e-cigarette brands, as well as the perceptions of the kids and experts who are now hooked on the devices.
The Sky program Vaping: Appealing to Children investigates the current state of the UK e-cigarette market and finds supermarket shelves filled with lollipops and chocolates containing illegal items that children under 18 are not allowed to buy, e-cigarettes. These e-cigarettes have been chemically modified to come in odd flavors, such as Blue Razz Lemonade and Fairground Wizz, or have cartoon characters printed on them. Some even imitate popular candy and juice brands like Chupa Chups, Skittles, Jolly Rancher, Rubicon, and Calypso.
The program interviewed some children who have used e-cigarettes, and they said they felt that e-cigarette manufacturers were targeting them with this marketing strategy. A 15-year-old boy said: “They just want you to get addicted. They just want you to smoke more.” Another 14-year-old girl said: “I think they are targeting people our age. Because They know we like sweets and fruit.”
The program also invited some experts to evaluate the impact of e-cigarettes on children’s health. Professor Andrew Bush, a pediatric respirologist from Imperial College London, has warned that we are sleepwalking into children’s existential crises. He said: “It’s clear that all this condiment is being marketed to kids. The colorful displays and sexy ads on TikTok are clearly an effort by the company to get kids to try this stuff, and it’s succeeding. It’s horrible. It What it’s trying to do is appeal to a new generation of nicotine addicts so these products can be marketed.”
Professor Bush said e-cigarettes contained known carcinogens and were similar to those faced by smokers. “We don’t know the long-term effects of e-cigarettes because they haven’t been around long enough, but I can’t think of any biologically plausible model for breathing a lot of hot chemicals into the lungs other than a bad idea,” he said. Treat e-cigarettes like tobacco and ban all coloring and flavoring.
However, in a statement to Sky programme, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said there was no evidence e-cigarette companies were targeting children and argued that advertising should not be responsible for children developing addictive habits. “We have seen no evidence that e-cigarette manufacturers or retailers are consciously targeting minors or attracting minors to their products,” the ASA said. Adults using e-cigarettes or nicotine products.”
John Dunn, director-general of the British Electronic Cigarette Industry Association, also expressed support for electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid and condemned the practice of imitating sweetened brands. “The use of sweetened brands on vaping products is absolutely not allowed and we absolutely condemn it,” he said, urging the government to do more to restrict children under 18 from buying e-cigarettes through rogue retailers.
Nearly 3 million adults in the UK use e-cigarettes and more than 200 people die every day from smoking-related diseases, according to NHS figures. But nearly 10 percent of middle school students also regularly use e-cigarettes, double the rate in 2014.
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