Vape flavours are one of the most contentious subjects in tobacco harm reduction. Critics argue that flavoured vapes are mainly designed to lure teenagers. But a growing volume of research points to a much more complex reality: Adult smokers also have strong preferences for flavoured products, and those flavours can play an important role in aiding people’s efforts to switch away from cigarettes.
As regulators around the world revisit their stance on vaping, the battle over flavours is becoming a key factor in whether harm-reduction strategies succeed or fail. In a major shift, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to introduce more flavours for vapes. After years of trying to curb the products, the agency is now proposing a framework that would permit some flavours it believes are more likely to attract adults than young people, such as mint, coffee, tea, and spices like clove and cinnamon.
Meanwhile, the FDA has said it plans to keep blocking candy and fruit-flavoured products, which regulators have traditionally linked with youth experimentation. The agency’s Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) process would still be required to approve any product. Manufacturers need to show their product would benefit adult smokers seeking to reduce or quit while posing a minimal risk of use among young people.
This new proposal has already been criticised by some health groups, which believe that flavoured vapes carry the risk of attracting minors. But the science behind flavour preferences tells a different story: adults prefer flavours too.
The science behind flavours
In fact, studies published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research and reviews of U.S. consumer surveys have consistently found that fruit, dessert, and menthol flavours are among the most popular choices for older consumers. Many former smokers say these flavours helped them to move beyond the taste of traditional tobacco and reduce relapse.
A widely cited survey of over 20,000 adult vapers published in 2018 by The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Association (CASAA) and the National Research Council found that more than 70 per cent of adult vapers reported regular use of vaping products with non-tobacco flavours. The availability of flavours actually helped them throughout their smoking cessation journey.
Multiple other studies have led to similar conclusions. Flavoured products have been consistently linked to greater satisfaction and adherence, two factors that are important for successful smoking cessation in tobacco harm reduction studies on vaping cessation tools. This confirms that rather than a marketing trick as often portrayed, flavours are integral to the effectiveness of vaping as a harm-reduction sIt’strategy.
It’s official: flavour bans fuel illicit markets
In line with this, policies banning vape flavours have had unintended consequences. Data have consistently shown that when flavoured products are made unavailable, consumers tend to go back to combustible cigarettes.
In Fargo, North Dakota, city officials recently voted to enact a total ban on the sale of flavoured nicotine products. Local business owners warned that the policy would be disastrous for small retailers, sending consumers to online merchants and neighbouring jurisdictions.
A vape shop owner wondered how this made sense. “If it’s targeting kids, if sweet flavours automatically mean something is targeting kids,” he wrote in a local commentary piece, “should we also ban flavoured coffee?” The argument speaks to a broader point that’s too often ignored in discussions about regulation: adults also like flavoured products, whether they’re beverages, food or nicotine alternatives.
A 2020 paper in JAMA Paediatrics analysing San Francisco’s broad flavour ban concluded that youth smoking actually rose compared with other districts after the restrictions went into effect. And while youth vaping did decline in some areas after restrictions, the risk that bans may send nicotine users back to cigarettes presents critical public health challenges.
Other research and real-world data have described the emergence of black markets in the wake of strict vaping regulation. When legal shops can’t sell flavoured products, consumers often turn to online or so-called grey-market suppliers that operate outside regulatory oversight. Such outcomes erode the very safeguards that policymakers seek to implement, from product safety standards to age verification requirements.
Do flavours encourage teen vaping?
Moreover, data indicate the relationship between flavours and youth use is more complex than many portray. Surveys by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health agencies show that curiosity, peer influence and experimentation are key motivators of vaping among youth. Flavour may influence product choice when you start experimenting, but it is seldom the most important reason young people try nicotine in the first place.
In addition, youth vaping rates in the United States have trended sharply downward since 2019, at their peak, despite the widespread availability of flavoured products across many jurisdictions. This pattern suggests that broader public health strategies—including education campaigns, enforcement of age restrictions, and improved ID checks—may be more effective at reducing youth access than product bans across the board.
Moreover, the fact that e-commerce nowadays accounts for a large share of consumer purchases, especially among younger adults, must be considered. Surveys suggest that approximately 85 per cent of consumers shop online, with 90 per cent of these being between 18 and 29 years old.
In light of this, one must assume that restricting access to local retail outlets would transfer the sales to online platforms, where age verification systems are easier to bypass, when they exist at all. Instead of removing access, bans might shift sales to channels harder for regulators to track.
Balancing youth safeguards with adult access
What regulators are up against is glaringly clear: Focus on protecting young people, but not at the expense of getting rid of effective tools for adult smokers. A sound regulatory framework would include rigorous age-verification requirements, responsible marketing provisions and ongoing monitoring of youth vaping trends — without taking away the flavours that millions of adults depend on to switch from smoking sensibly. For many smokers, flavours are one factor that makes these alternatives attractive.
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