2019-2020
News Release
REF NO.: 20
SUBJECT: School of Pharmacy e-cigarette research published in major medical journal
DATE: November 5, 2019
An associate professor in the School of Pharmacy has published the paper, Association of Canada’s Provincial Bans on E-cigarette Sales to Minors With E-cigarette Use Among Youths, in JAMA Pediatrics.
In Canada, e-cigarette use among youth almost doubled between 2014-17, which risks “creating a new generation of nicotine-addicted youths who face a higher risk of smoking combustible cigarettes and are subject to negative outcomes beyond the adverse physiological effects of nicotine,” writes Dr. Hai Nguyen.
E-cigarette sales to minors have been banned in several U.S. states and in all Canadian provinces; there is limited knowledge about the extent to which these bans can reduce e-cigarette use among youths, however.
Dr. Nguyen, who is the Canada Research Chair in Health Policy Evaluation and Health Care Sustainability at Memorial, investigated whether these bans are effective at reducing e-cigarette use among youths, and the mechanisms through which these bans worked (or failed to work).
He found that banning e-cigarette sales to minors helped reduce the rise in e-cigarette use by youths. However, he also uncovered evidence that youths responded to the bans by increasingly obtaining e-cigarettes through their social sources (friends, relatives, etc.).
“The study’s findings suggest that this policy should be supplemented with other measures that can reduce young people’s desire to obtain e-cigarettes through social sources, such as a ban on products with flavours that appeal to youths and children,” said Dr. Nguyen.
The full paper can be found on the JAMA Pediatrics website.
REF NO.: 20
SUBJECT: School of Pharmacy e-cigarette research published in major medical journal
DATE: November 5, 2019
An associate professor in the School of Pharmacy has published the paper, Association of Canada’s Provincial Bans on E-cigarette Sales to Minors With E-cigarette Use Among Youths, in JAMA Pediatrics.
In Canada, e-cigarette use among youth almost doubled between 2014-17, which risks “creating a new generation of nicotine-addicted youths who face a higher risk of smoking combustible cigarettes and are subject to negative outcomes beyond the adverse physiological effects of nicotine,” writes Dr. Hai Nguyen.
E-cigarette sales to minors have been banned in several U.S. states and in all Canadian provinces; there is limited knowledge about the extent to which these bans can reduce e-cigarette use among youths, however.
Dr. Nguyen, who is the Canada Research Chair in Health Policy Evaluation and Health Care Sustainability at Memorial, investigated whether these bans are effective at reducing e-cigarette use among youths, and the mechanisms through which these bans worked (or failed to work).
He found that banning e-cigarette sales to minors helped reduce the rise in e-cigarette use by youths. However, he also uncovered evidence that youths responded to the bans by increasingly obtaining e-cigarettes through their social sources (friends, relatives, etc.).
“The study’s findings suggest that this policy should be supplemented with other measures that can reduce young people’s desire to obtain e-cigarettes through social sources, such as a ban on products with flavours that appeal to youths and children,” said Dr. Nguyen.
The full paper can be found on the JAMA Pediatrics website.
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