AREQUIPA, Peru – Researchers at the University of California, United States, warned that new electronic cigarette products equipped with touch screens and games could cause nicotine addiction, especially in young people.
In an article published in Tobacco ControlScientists Man Wong and Prue Talbot said their labs are constantly monitoring the e-cigarette market for new devices, especially those targeting youth and young adults.
They detailed that one of these devices, Craftbox V-Play, can run Pac-Man, Tetris and F22, classic arcade games.
Other devices they found alarming were vapes that had digital games encouraging users to vape, some with animations that changed as users took a puff, vapes that had built-in Bluetooth and could be personalized with personal photos, and models with the endorsement of celebrities that offered promotional trading cards.
They highlighted that disposable vapes were relatively simple two years ago and functioned as nicotine delivery devices, however, they are now designed to resemble and include features of smartphones and handheld gaming devices, making them more attractive to young people.
They added that unlike previous versions of e-cigarettes, smart vapes take advantage of three potential addictions: nicotine dependence, gaming disorder and screen time obsession.
They were surprised to learn that some smart vapes had games that required the user to vape to progress through games, potentially accelerating nicotine addiction.
Experts expect that their investigation encourage the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies to regulate sales of these devices.
“In the long term, increasing awareness of how vapes can evolve over short periods of time can increase surveillance and monitoring to ensure that products targeting youth are quickly removed from the market,” Talbot said.
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