according to data from national cross-sectional surveys.
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The prevalence of vaping in the past 30 days rose from 11% to 16% in the United States and from 8% to 14.6% in Canada, while use in England showed an nonsignificant increase of 8.7% to 8.9%, David Hammond, PhD, of the University of Waterloo (Canada) and associates said in the BMJ.
Embedded in those U.S. and Canadian increases is the recent evolution of the vaping market brought about by “the growth of JUUL e-cigarettes and similar products [that use] benzoic acid and nicotine salt technology to deliver higher concentrations of nicotine than conventional e-cigarettes,” they explained.
In England, the JUUL system is limited to less than half the nicotine concentration, at 20 mg/mL, compared with more than 50 mg/mL in the United States and Canada, and it was not available at all types of retail outlets at the time of the surveys. That situation changed in March 2019, when the company expanded to convenience stores, the investigators noted.
In the United States, JUUL was the second-most popular product among past–30-day vapers who had a usual brand in 2017, with 9% reporting use. In 2018, JUUL was the most popular brand and use was up to 28%. In Canada, the brand was not among the top five in 2017, but was third in 2018 at 10% in those who reported vaping in the past 30 days. The leading Canadian brand in 2018 was Smok, which released a nicotine-salt version in March of 2018, Dr. Hammond and associates reported.
“Before 2018, there was relatively little evidence of regular vaping among adolescents that might be indicative of nicotine addiction; however, the emergence of JUUL and nicotine salt–based products might signal a change,” they wrote.
The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project’s Youth Tobacco and Vaping Survey was conducted online in each country in two waves – July to August 2017 and August to September 2018 – with a sample size of approximately 12,000 for each.
The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hammond is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research–Public Health Agency of Canada applied public health research chair. The investigators said that they had no other financial disclosures to report, but several have served as paid witnesses in legal challenges against tobacco companies.
SOURCE: Hammond D et al. BMJ 2019 Jun 19. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l2219.