Puff Bars Rise to Fame and Why You Should Be Concerned

Adults are always one step behind when it comes to keeping up with teen culture. Except adults who are in the tobacco industry. Those adults are aware of what kids want: fun flavors ¹ like strawberry ² and horchata ³ that look like technological devices ⁴ – which is the way we now have more than 3.5 million young people using e-cigarettes in the United States ⁵ . And to add to this alarming trend, Latino high school students in California are more likely to try and use e-cigarettes ⁶ .

But at the beginning of the year 2020, when the FDA announced new regulations related to vaping products, we had an opportunity to put an end to the youth vaping crisis ⁷ , which has made electronic cigarettes the most commonly used products among the middle and high school students. Unfortunately, pressure from the tobacco industry influenced FDA regulations.

Not only did restrictions on flavors fail (thousands of flavors are still available ⁸ ), it also opened the door to a whole new category of flavored vapes: the cheap, disposable vapes ⁹ . These have the same high content of nicotine salts as Juul ¹⁰ . But Puff Bar has created even more attractive flavors for young people like “OMG” (orange, mango, guava) ¹¹ , “Blue Razz” ¹¹ and “Lush” ¹³ . It is difficult for a child who has a brightly colored “Blue Razz” Puff Bar to think that it may be the seed of addiction ¹³ , as well as increase anxiety ¹⁴ , worsen learning difficulties ¹⁶ and cause damage that could be permanent ¹⁷ .

With Puff Bar gaining more popularity every day, we can expect plenty of new disposable competitors, offering sweet-flavored nicotine in Cheap single-use vapes that kids can throw away before they get home. Although we are more vigilant than ever about youth vaping, our children are far from safe from harm.

Learn what you can do to protect your children in AddictionAlSabor.org 2021