News Archives

Vape pens produce Pavlovian-like cue among young adults who smoke

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.”

Local Orange County Expert Weighs in on T21

More support from the medical community comes in the form of Dr. Uma B. Mishra of Orange County Radiation Oncology’s open letter to Orange County leaders. His emphasis on 95% of smoking initiation happening before the age of 21 further strengthens messages and rationale from the public health and medical communities around the United States.

We at the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation also encourage Orange County to fully enforce the new minimum legal sales age law. Increased enforcement and compliance checks using youth decoys, as well as retailer education, are crucial to the success of Tobacco 21 laws. Thank you to Dr. Mishra for your public support of Tobacco 21 and its life-saving capabilities.