{"id":262328,"date":"2026-04-11T06:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262328\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:34:14","slug":"youth-vaping-declines-after-california-flavor-ban-ucsd-study-finds-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/262328\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth vaping declines after California flavor ban, UCSD study finds \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

The appeal of vaping may lie more in flavor than nicotine. A UC San Diego study<\/a> finds that banning flavored tobacco products is linked to lower youth vaping rates, without pushing teens toward cigarettes.<\/p>\n

Researchers interviewed more than 2.8 million middle and high school students \u2014 grades 7, 9 and 11 \u2014asking about past-month use of tobacco products.<\/p>\n

Key takeawaysLocal flavored tobacco bans can be an effective strategy for reducing youth e-cigarette use.The youth vaping rates declined, but concerns about nicotine dependence and long-term health risks continue.The researchers say future research is needed to understand the long-term impact of statewide bans and how similar policies affect youth tobacco use.<\/p>\n

“Our findings suggest that local flavored tobacco bans can be an effective strategy for reducing youth e-cigarette use,” said Eric Leas, assistant professor at UCSD Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science<\/a> and senior author of the study.”<\/p>\n

As of 2022 California voters approved a statewide flavored tobacco sales ban, which took effect in 2023 with Proposition 31<\/a>, leading with 76.5% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Three years later UCSD shared the results of the study that was based on responses from students who took the California Healthy Kids Survey between 2017 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Youth vaping peaked in 2019 when more than a quarter of high school students reported using e-cigarrettes or vapes, according to national data.<\/p>\n

The rate has since declined, but concerns about nicotine dependence and long-term health risks continue.<\/p>\n

“We did not find evidence that these policies led young people to switch to cigarettes, which has been a major concern raised in policy debates.” <\/p>\n

The UCSD researchers compared tobacco use among students attending schools in areas with flavored tobacco bans to those in areas without such policies.<\/p>\n

Youth vaping rates were lower in areas with flavored tobacco bans. In jurisdictions with a ban, 6.2% of students reported current e-cigarette use, compared with 7.7% in areas without one, the researchers reported. Cigarette use remained roughly the same in jurisdictions with and without the policies.<\/p>\n

Many cities in California had implemented their own restrictions years before Proposition 31, some as early as 2011. The researchers of the study said these local policies provide an opportunity to study a longer-term impact.<\/p>\n

Resources and support for enforcing these laws also grew over time, particularly after the statewide ban took effect, helping local communities better implement the restrictions, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

“Local policies gave us a valuable window into how flavored tobacco restrictions may influence youth behavior over time,” said Giovanni Appolon, first author of the study who conducted this research as part of experiential
learning as a doctoral candidate in the UC San Diego – San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health. “As more jurisdictions adopt these policies, continued monitoring will help determine how enforcement, policy design and community context shape their public health impact.”<\/p>\n

However, the authors did note that the study focused on California, a state with historically strong tobacco control policies and relatively low youth smoking rates compared with other states. <\/p>\n

“The magnitude and timing of the effects may differ in places with different policy environments,” a UCSD statement read.<\/p>\n

Future research is needed to understand the long-term impact of statewide bans and how similar policies affect youth tobacco use across different regions and communities, the authors of the paper write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The appeal of vaping may lie more in flavor than nicotine. A UC San Diego study finds that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,14133,14725],"class_list":{"0":"post-262328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-health-science","12":"tag-ucsd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}