E-cigarettes are now the most commonly consumed nicotine product amongst children in countries with strong tobacco control policies, researchers said. (Representational Image)
Advertisements featuring electronic-cigarettes with flavours such as chocolate and bubble gum are more likely to attract school children to buy and try e-cigarettes, a new Cambridge study has warned.
E-cigarettes are now the most commonly consumed nicotine product amongst children in countries with strong tobacco control policies, researchers said.
In the US, the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that e-cigarette use tripled from 2013 to 2014 amongst high schoolers, rising from 4.5 per cent to over 13 per cent, and amongst middle school students increasing from 1 per cent to 4 per cent.
These figures are mirrored in England, where e-cigarette use has risen from 5 per cent in 2013 to 8 per cent in 2014 amongst 11-18 year olds, researchers said.
As e-cigarette use rises amongst children and adolescents, there are concerns that their use could lead to tobacco smoking, said researchers from the University of Cambridge.
E-cigarettes are currently marketed in around 8,000 different flavours. Internal tobacco industry documents show that young people find tobacco products with candy-like flavours more appealing than those without, researchers said.
They assigned 598 school children to one of three groups: one group was shown adverts for candy-like flavoured e-cigarettes; a second group adverts for non-flavoured e-cigarettes; and a third, control group, in which the children saw no adverts.
The school children were then asked questions to gauge issues such as the appeal of using e-cigarettes and tobacco smoking, the perceived harm of smoking, how much they liked the ads and how interested they might be in buying and trying e-cigarettes.
The children shown the ads for candy-flavoured e-cigarettes liked these ads more and expressed a greater interest in buying and trying e-cigarettes than their peers.
However, showing the ads made no significant difference to the overall appeal of tobacco smoking or of using e-cigarettes - in other words, how attractive, fun or cool they considered the activities.
"We're cautiously optimistic from our results that e-cigarette ads don't make tobacco smoking more attractive, but we're concerned that ads for e-cigarettes with flavours that might appeal to school children could encourage them to try the products," said Dr Milica Vasiljevic from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge.
The study was published in the journal BMJ Tobacco Control.