“A qualitative study about trends of e-cigarettes and policies related to it”

1. Abstract

The youth and all age groups in the United States are more into e-cigarettes rather than use of other smoking product. Recently, e-cigarettes have taken over the market as we can see the e-cigarettes in everyone’s hand including adolescents to old age groups. In this narrative review, I have used five different scholarly articles and studies published in different journals that evaluate and shows the use and negative impacts of vaping. I will be using qualitative research method in this paper and do secondary analysis of the data collected.

2. Introduction

a. Brief introduction of the background/incentive of your research

E-cigarettes or electronic cigarettes are also known as vapes, e-hookahs, or e-cigs which is an electronic device which is designed to deliver nicotine in the form of vapors. The use of e-cigarettes is increasing rapidly among the youths or even in adults. E-cigarettes became the part of US market by the mid-2000s. It comes in different shape and size which was invented to help the people to quit smoking but in contrast the use e-cigarettes are harming the youths along with children seeming more interested in its use. As per the report of Office on Smoking and Health, National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in 2021, 2.06 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes, including 2.8% of middle school students and 11. 3% of high school students. Since, the use of cigarettes is related to the health of public, it is a matter of concern to the government. Therefore, many policies and regulation have been made to reduce the use and sell of e-cigarettes in the United States which puts restrictions on marketing tobacco products to children and anyone below 21. To protect the public and create a healthier future for all Americans, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was signed into law on June 22, 2009 which gives FDA authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products

b. What is the purpose of your research? Problem statement?

In this paper, I will explore the use and increasing trend of e-cigarettes among youths and what policies and laws are made by the states for public health and to minimize it. Many individuals who had previously researched in this sector suggest that the e-cigarettes are the medium like tobacco for taking the life of youths and adults. They deny to accept the fact that e-cigarettes are harmless, and warned the states and lawmakers to make strong policy for it. I decide to research in this topic as it is mainly concerned with the health of the people, and sadly youths are involved in this with or without knowing it’s effect. I also want to see what previous researchers have to say in this topic, what they suggest for the government, and how the country is working to minimize this major issue.

c. Summarize the significance of the topic for public administration

The use of e-cigarettes should be great concern to the parents, communities as well as to the government because it is directly related to the health of public. Regular use of e-cigarettes leads to severe diseases such as lung injuries, nicotine addiction, increased risk of heart diseases, heart attacks and strokes, shortness of breath, headaches, dry mouth and throat, headaches, etc. It is important for public administrator to understand and know the past and existing policies and regulations related to e-cigarettes so that further studies can be done in the topic analyzing already passed policies. (coherent)

The paper is composed of the different research paper components: Literature review, data and methodology and finally conclusion.

3. Literature Review and/or theoretical framework (at least 5 academic sources).

a. What have other said about this topic?

Many scholarly articles have been published on E-cigarettes, their use, effects, and policies. Others have tried hard to dispel the notion that e-cigarettes are harmless. One of such articles is of Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on smoking and tobacco use. In the article, CDC has given much-needed information about E-cigarettes, including their benefits and their intended purpose. The article is clear that E-cigarettes are beneficial to non-pregnant adult tobacco smokers when used to substitute regular cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products.

The article has further warned that E-cigarettes are not safe for young adults and youths, pregnant adults, and anyone who has not used tobacco products. Their intended and only purpose is to help those who are quitting smoking to make the quitting process easy and doable. There is a clear warning in the CDC article that using E-cigarettes for any other purpose is abusing them, and there are harmful effects. As a matter of fact, the article clarifies that it is yet to be proven by scientists if e-cigarettes are indeed effective in helping adults quit smoking. Individuals and especially young adults are warned not to use E-cigarettes if they have never smoked before.

The research on e-cigarettes, noted that vaping is the new wave of nicotine addiction. (Dinardo & Rome, 2021). And through this research and other articles reviewed under this case study, this paper agrees with the findings. Many are becoming nicotine addicts through vaping. They innocently get into it, thinking that they are safe since it is not traditional smoking. Despite the many government warnings against the unnecessary use of e-cigarettes many still indulge in this dangerous behavior. (Furlow, 2015)

Another reviewed article was done by (Marques, Piqueras, & Sanz (2021) noted that many people consider e-cigarettes to be a safe alternative to conventional cigarettes, which revolutionized the tobacco industry. Because in e-cigarettes, tobacco combustion is replaced by electric liquid heating, many have been made to believe that e-cigarettes are less harmful to the respiratory system. Manufacturers have used innovative features like adjusting the nicotine content and adding pleasant flavors to win over new users. But the facts remain that the safety of e-cigarettes is still controversial due to limited scientific evidence. Moreover, it has been reported that the heating process itself can lead to the formation of new decomposition compounds of questionable toxicity.

In addition to articles on vaping, a news article called “An Epidemic Continues” mainly featured the problem of American youth vaping. In the article, the FDA stated that the trend of vaping (e-cigarettes) was on the rise among the youth and that it was the new nicotine addiction. To emphasize their point, the FDA termed vaping an epidemic.

b. What theories address it, and what do they say?

c. What previous research exists?

Vaping: An emerging health hazard

Oriakhi (2020) did research in (Vaping: An emerging health hazard), where he reviewed existing literature on vaping and its risks to users. In his findings, patients rapidly progressed to acute respiratory failure requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation after using e-cigarettes in the form of vaping. He also noted that there was a significant decline in the use of combustible tobacco cigarettes but an increase in the use of E-cigarettes. According to Oriakhi, the increase in vaping among young people is attributed to the many regular advertisements for e-cigarettes, promoting them as viable and safe alternatives to cigarette smoking despite an absence of scientific proof to back the claims. In his findings, he concluded that many of the emerging respiratory diseases and cardiovascular disorders are associated with vaping. To make the matter worse, his research found that the health risks associated with e-cigarettes have implications to not only the primary user, but the aerosols also cause second-hand and third-hand injuries to those in the same environment as the smoker.

E-cigarette Use and Adult Cigarette Smoking Cessation: A Meta-Analysis

(Wang, Bhadriraju & Glantz (2021), did research to determine the association between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation. Their findings led them to conclude that as a consumer product, in observational studies, e-cigarettes were not associated with increased smoking cessation in the adult population. But, the young generation (adolescents and youths) led to habitual smokers who thought that they were safe from any harm. The provision of free e-cigarettes as a therapeutic intervention was associated with increased smoking cessation by adults who had been smoking and were ready to quit. But most young people who were into vaping did it for leisure and thought that it was a “cool trend.” Wang and peers recommended that E-cigarettes should not be approved as consumer products but may warrant consideration as a prescription therapy.

d. Are there consistent findings, or do these past studies disagree?

There are many previous research papers on E-cigarettes. Still, this paper only featured two because, during this research, it was discovered that there is a lot of similarity between the documents and the outcomes. Even though many of the researchers had different research objectives, there was consistency in their findings. Most previous papers’ common findings were the lack of proof on the claims that e-cigarettes are safe and harmless. Another common conclusion in previous researches are that there are no existing proper regulations in the industry. Also, most e-cigarettes users are young people who are not using it for the intended purpose, which is to help quit combustible cigarette smoking. Lastly, all the research reviewed by this paper have given scientific evidence that e-cigarettes are indeed associated with some respiratory complications.

e. Does the body of existing research have flows that you think you can remedy, or gaps you think you can fill?

Even though the topic of E-cigarettes has been researched intensively and by many scholars, there is still no substantial information on the Policies and Regulations related to e-cigarettes. It is not clear how the industry is regulated, what is legal or illegal when it comes to e-cigarettes manufacturing and consumption. Those are the areas that this research paper focuses on and the questions it hopes to answer at the end of this research. In the event that this research concludes that there are no set regulations and policies in place, then this paper will recommend some to support other recommendations made previously by other researchers on the same.

4. Data and Methodology

a. Research Design

b. How you are going about studying your problem (qualitative / quantitative)

c. Data Collection – How and where do you intend/expect to get your data?

d. Research Models

e. Measurement – How are you going to analyze the data?

5. Conclusion

a. Summary of your proposal

b. Limitations of the research/What are the limitations of the analyses you propose