Side Note

The vaping industry takes a hit

Even though it may feel like there’s a Juul ad around every corner, and the kids are puffing up their dragon-energy-flavored smoke juice on the reg, vaping might actually be on the way out. A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Iowa and Guangzhou Medical University found that regular e-cigarette use amongst adults has experienced a serious decrease over the years.

Contrary to basically every “shocking” report from the FDA, the study found that habitual or “current” e-cigarette use among adults dropped significantly from 2014 to 2016. “These trends may suggest that some individuals are trying but not continuing use of e-cigarettes,” wrote the researchers, “but further investigation with individual longitudinal data on use of both e-cigarettes and other nicotine products is needed.”

Similar results were noted in 2016 among teens, who, despite being the subject of many a vape-centric thinkpiece, seem to be getting over vaping: “[T]he National Youth Tobacco Survey reported that the prevalence of current e-cigarette use among US middle and high school students declined for the first time in 2016, after a continuous increase from 2011 to 2015.” 2016 is, of course, about a century ago in trends – maybe the vaping pace has since picked up again – but this wouldn’t be the first time the media was late to a zeitgeist.

Finally, scientific evidence vaping isn’t cool

While the study did find that there was a significant increase in adult e-cigarette use between 2014 and 2016, this wasn’t daily or even semi-habitual use, but ever use. Meaning, most adults copped to taking at least one hit of an e-cigarette once during the two year period, which is honestly pretty reasonable. I mean, who wouldn’t at least try and reenact their favorite vape vine, or attempt to blow some Certifiably Mad Cloudz at least once?

The study also noted that former smokers were picking up the ole vape rig far more often than current smokers, an observation which seems to contradict the whole “vaping is a great alternative to cigarettes” narrative.

Teens smoked because of movies, and they vape because of Vine

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