A study of the e-cigarette market in 2012 and between December 2013 and January 2014 reveals that marketing of electronic smoking devices is going strong despite increasing debate on its effectiveness and potential health concerns. More e-cig flavors also are crowding the shelves.
"The number of e-cigarette brands sold on the Internet is large and the variety of flavors staggering," said Dr. Shu-Hong Zhu of the University of California, San Diego, department of family and preventive medicine.
Zhu's research notes that 10 new brands have entered the market and over 240 new flavors are within customer reach. The study assessed and reviewed online English-based marketing efforts. While nearly 40 brands left the market between the two study periods, 215 new brands came into play.
As of the start of 2014, states the study published in Tobacco Control, there were 460-plus e-cigarette brands and 7,800 flavors. Nearly every brand offers menthol and tobacco options in addition to flavors mimicking alcohol drink flavors, fruit and dessert flavors.
The study also states that about 10 percent of brands make a claim that the device can help smokers kick the habit. That claim is drawing greater scrutiny by lawmakers and health organizations as there is increasing debate on whether such devices can help wanna-be quitters and if the devices are as safe as initially believed.
About 10 percent of older and newer e-cigarette brands made direct claims that the products can help smokers quit, Zhu and colleagues said in a journal news release. Federal agencies are reviewing marketing efforts given concerns that the device is proving increasingly alluring to young teens. More municipalities are banning the use of e-cigarettes in public places as well.
"The product has caught on fire," said Shu-Hong Zhu, who stated there is continuing research on how the increasing number of flavors may be impacting certain user demographics, such as children and young teens.
"As e-cigarettes represent an emerging market in which the tobacco industry has extensively invested, it is imperative to identify the population subgroups that are more likely to use them and the subsequent implications this might have on public health," said Constantine Vardavas, senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Global Tobacco Control, in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. "These new findings show that millions -- including many young people and smokers trying to quit -- are trying e-cigarettes, which underscores the importance of assessing their potential harm or benefits."
