According to reports on March 15th, it is reported that a study found that removing eye -catching packaging helps reduce the use of electronic cigarettes by adolescents.

Researchers at King's College London (KCL) have found that standardized electronic cigarette packaging by removing the brand image will reduce the interest of adolescents for electronic cigarettes, but it will not reduce the attractiveness of electronic cigarettes to adults of smoking.

According to a public opinion survey of Smoking and Health Action (ASH), the proportion of children from 11 to 17 years old using electronic cigarettes jumped from 4% in 2020 to 7% in 2022. Health experts warn that teenagers are becoming the goal of electronic cigarette companies. These companies use colorful packaging and fruit flavors, especially the popularity of one -time electronic cigarettes of 5 pounds.

In this study, more than 2,400 11-18-year-olds and 12,000 adults 18 years old and over were randomly distributed and watched a set of three different packaging electronic cigarette products. These include standardized white packaging with all -brand packaging, standardized white packaging with brand names and standardized green packaging with brand names.

The participants were then asked what products they were most interested in trying at this age. Researchers have found that people in the youth group are more likely to report that their peers are not interested in electronic cigarettes sold using standardized packaging.

This is in stark contrast to the formation of adult groups, and the interests of the adult group have not decreased due to standardized packaging.

Dr. Katherine East, a senior author from KCL, said: Electronic cigarettes and ordinary nicotine products should be used for smoking to help them quit smoking, but non -smoke -absorbers under the age of 18 should not be used.

"Some of the current electronic cigarette packaging has eye -catching and attractive designs. Our research has found that removing the brand image from the packaging will reduce the attractiveness of electronic cigarettes to adolescents without reducing the attractiveness of adults. It is an important difference, because this means that electronic cigarettes can still attract adults as a cigarette quitting tool, especially because our previous research has confirmed that the harm of electronic cigarettes is far less than smoking. "

NHS said that although the long -term impact of electronic cigarettes is still unknown, it is much smaller than smoking. However, electronic cigarettes still have health risks.

Eve Taylor, the first author of the study from KCL, said that the ideal situation is to ensure that young people will not be seduced first, and they will not prevent adults from using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking.

Professor Sir Professor Chris Wetti, the British chief medical officer, criticized the marketing of electronic cigarettes to children last month -claiming that certain products are obviously to attract minor children. It is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to children under the age of 18.

The study was conducted by scholars from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and ASH. This is the first major study in similar research on how to attract young people.

Dr. Sarah Jackson, chief researcher at the University of London's Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, said: The results of these studies show that it is required that the sale of electronic cigarettes can help reduce their attractiveness to young people (and may absorb electronic cigarettes) without any need It adversely affects the attractiveness of adults.

"In the UK, since 2017, there have been no decorative packaging requirements for cigarettes and hand -rolling tobacco -data indicates that the smoking rate has declined -so this intervention measure is precedent."

"However, although cigarettes of different brands look very similar (which means that packaging is the main opportunity for brand promotion), electronic cigarette equipment has a variety of shapes and colors. Once the packaging is removed, they may still attract young people. Therefore, although standardized packaging may reduce the attractiveness of electronic cigarettes to young people to young people to a certain extent, this may be only part of the problem. "