America
E-cigarette advertising triggers urge to smoke
Washington, March 13
Television advertisements
for e-cigarettes may be enticing current and even former tobacco
smokers to reach for another cigarette, new research reveals.
People
who smoke tobacco cigarettes daily and who watched e-cigarette
advertisements with someone inhaling (or vaping) or holding an
e-cigarette showed a greater urge to smoke than regular smokers who did
not see the vaping.
After watching e-cigarette advertisements
with vaping, former smokers feel less confident that they could refrain
from smoking tobacco cigarettes than former smokers seeing e-cigarette
ads without vaping.
"We know that exposure to smoking cues such
as visual depictions of cigarettes, ashtrays, matches, lighters and
smoke heightens smokers' urge to smoke a cigarette, and decreases former
smokers' confidence in their ability to refrain from smoking a
cigarette," said Erin K. Maloney from the University of Pennsylvania.
The
researchers studied more than 800 daily, intermittent, and former
smokers who watched e-cigarette advertising, and who then took a survey
to determine smoking urges, intentions and behaviours.
Over 35
percent of the daily smokers who were showed vaping reported having a
tobacco cigarette during the study against 22 percent of daily smokers
who saw ads without vaping, and about 23 percent of daily smokers who
did not see any advertising.
"These findings are especially
relevant to ongoing health and policy discussions, as they indicate that
it is not just the health impact of e-cigarettes and vaping themselves
that must be considered," co-author Teresa Thompson from University of
Dayton said.
The study appeared in the journal Health Communication