Heidi Wicks

Dr. Hai Nguyen’s paper, “Association of Canada’s Provincial Bans on Electronic Cigarette Sales to Minors With E-cigarette Use Among Youths” has been published in the JAMA Pediatrics. Dr. Nguyen is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Health Policy Evaluation and Health Care Sustainability.

In Canada, e-cigarette use amongst youth almost doubled between 2014 and 2017, 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,” Dr. Nguyen’s paper reads.

E-cigarette sales to minors has been banned in several US states and in all Canadian provinces; however, there is limited knowledge about the extent to which these bans can reduce e-cigarette use among youths.

The paper investigates whether these bans are effective at reducing e-cigarette use among youths, and the mechanisms through which these bans worked (or failed to work).

Dr. Nguyen 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 flavors that appeal to youths and children.”

The full paper can be read on the JAMA Pediatrics website. For further information and to arrange interview, please contact Heidi Wicks (communications advisor, School of Pharmacy) at 749-7462, 864-8732 or wicksh@mun.ca