Flavored tobacco, hookah appeal highly among teen smokers: study

A new research reveals that teens are drawn to flavored tobacco and hookah which may trigger them to smoke habitually.

The study published in JAMA, led by Bridget Ambrose of the Center for Tobacco Products in the US Food and Drug Administration, found that most tobacco users start before legal age.

More than 13,000 teenagers aged 12 to 17 were surveyed about their use of tobacco products in the last month. The researchers included various tobacco products including e-cigarettes, hookahs, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cloves, dissolvable tobacco, bidlis (hand-rolled cigarettes) and kreteks (blended cigarettes).

The researchers also included flavors such as mint, clove, spice, menthol, fruit, chocolate and other sweets. For the results, the researchers found that 89 percentage of first time users of tobacco used hookah, while 81 percent used e-cigarettes, 65 percent used cigars and 50 percent for cigarettes, Medical News Today reports.

According to Reuters, 80 percent of the youth who have used tobacco in the last 30 days answered that they used flavor ones and 60 percent of cigarette users.

"Consistent with national school-based estimates, this study confirms widespread appeal of flavored products among youth tobacco users," the authors wrote in their journal.

Flavored tobacco products have become an alarming trend and have concerned health authorities. Because of this, the FDA is continuously monitoring new products.

"The FDA evaluates studies as part of a larger body of evidence aimed at assisting in our mission to protect public health and furthering our understanding on particular issues," said FDA press officer Michael Felberbaum in email to the outlet. "Flavored tobacco products have become increasingly common in the United States and are especially attractive to youth."

According to a pulmonary expert from New York City's Lenox Hill Hospital, early tobacco smoking in youth can trigger addiction.

"These are often the patients who can never walk away from smoking," said Dr. Len Horovitz, via WebMD. "The switch has been turned on at an early age, and it is particularly hard for them to walk away from cigarettes once they've started smoking."

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released a recommendation due to this trend among teens. Their statement recommends that the minimum age purchase for e-cigarettes and other tobacco products be raised to 21. The AAP is also calling out to the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes the same way they do to regular tobacco products.

"Most adolescents don't use just one nicotine product but will commonly use or experiment with several," Dr. Harold Farber, pulmonologist at Texas Children's Hospital, said via Health Day. "Research to date shows that adolescents who experiment with e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes are much more likely to go on to become regular cigarette smokers and less likely to stop cigarette smoking."