A recent study has revealed significant gaps in online regulations that allow teenagers to purchase e-cigarettes with ease. Researchers tested compliance by buying flavoured vaping products from 78 websites and found that 78% of the deliveries were made without any contact, and legally required ID scans occurred in just 1 out of 105 cases. Raquel Harati, the study’s lead author, emphasised the need for “routine surveillance of online retailers” to strengthen enforcement and reduce youth access.

Shockingly, over 80% of the deliveries used the United States Postal Service (USPS), despite a 2020 federal ban on shipping vaping products through USPS. Thomas Carr, from the American Lung Association, criticised the failings of online age verification, stating, “It’s remarkably easy for kids to get tobacco products mailed to them.”

The Truth Initiative highlights that “thousands of flavored, high-nicotine, and relatively cheap e-cigarette products remain on the market—many of them illegally—driving youth use and nicotine addiction”.

Furthermore, a study on e-cigarette marketing and communication notes that “e-cigarette advertisements are often framed as an alternative to combustible cigarettes, and that e-cigarette advertisement exposure may be associated with e-cigarette trial in adolescents and young adults”. Read more

The study also highlighted how flavoured e-cigarettes, marketed in youth-friendly options like chocolate and blueberry, continue to drive underage usage. Public health experts caution that nicotine in these products can damage developing brains, with Harati warning, “Nicotine strongly impacts the neural networks that regulate emotions in young people.”

While federal laws have increased the legal purchase age to 21 and banned USPS deliveries, enforcement lags behind. Health organisations are urging the Food and Drug Administration to address these loopholes, describing delays in regulatory action as unacceptable.

Even with laws in place, we can see that young people are still finding ways to buy e-cigarettes easily. It’s important that stricter measures are introduced to stop this and protect the health of teenagers by having stricter compliance checks, tougher delivery rules and limits on appealing flavours are critical to protecting teenagers and reducing access to harmful nicotine products.

Source: CNN