The University of Chicago recently released a study concluding that witnessing a vaporizer in use increases young adult’s urge to smoke. Similar to arguments laid out for smoking in public, cues lay heavily on this phenomena. For individuals that smoke, there was no significant difference between seeing someone use a combustible tobacco product or vaporizer when compared to desire to smoke. “The level and duration of desire to smoke among volunteers was the same whether they observed their “colleague” smoking a cigarette or using a vape pen. When the colleague drank bottled water, volunteers had no change in desire to smoke or vape.”
“We’ve made real progress on reducing smoking in our country,” King said. “We’ve done a good job banning indoor smoking. We rarely see two-pack-a-day smokers like we used to. Yet seeing people smoke in public remains common. Our study focused on a classical Pavlovian trigger, as seeing someone smoke is a known potent cue that can induce others to smoke. We did not expect that the vape pen would be as potent a cue as the regular cigarette, but it was as potent.”
