IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i7p655-d73073.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smokers’ and E-Cigarette Users’ Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements

Author

Listed:
  • Olivia A. Wackowski

    (Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA)

  • David Hammond

    (School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Richard J. O’Connor

    (Department of Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA)

  • Andrew A. Strasser

    (Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA)

  • Cristine D. Delnevo

    (Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA)

Abstract

Cigarette warning labels are important sources of risk information, but warning research for other tobacco products is limited. This study aimed to gauge perceptions about warnings that may be used for e-cigarettes. We conducted six small focus groups in late 2014/early 2015 with adult current e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers. Participants rated and discussed their perceptions of six e-cigarette warning statements, and warnings in two existing Vuse and MarkTen e-cigarette ads. Participants were open to e-cigarette warnings and provided the strongest reactions to statements warning that e-liquid/e-vapor or e-cigarettes can be poisonous, contain toxins, or are “not a safe alternative to smoking”. However, many also noted that these statements were exaggerated, potentially misleading, and could scare smokers away from reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. Opinions on the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed nicotine addiction warning and warnings that e-cigarettes had not been approved for smoking cessation or had unknown health effects were mixed. Participants perceived MarkTen’s advertisement warning to be stronger and more noticeable than Vuse’s. Care should be taken in developing e-cigarette warnings given their relative recentness and potential for harm reduction compared to other tobacco products. Additional research, including with varied audiences, would be instructive.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivia A. Wackowski & David Hammond & Richard J. O’Connor & Andrew A. Strasser & Cristine D. Delnevo, 2016. "Smokers’ and E-Cigarette Users’ Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:7:p:655-:d:73073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/655/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/7/655/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noar, S.M. & Hall, M.G. & Brewer, N.T., 2015. "Pictorial cigarette pack warnings have important effects," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(3), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olivia A. Wackowski & Jennah M. Sontag & David Hammond & Richard J. O’Connor & Pamela A. Ohman-Strickland & Andrew A. Strasser & Andrea C. Villanti & Cristine D. Delnevo, 2019. "The Impact of E-Cigarette Warnings, Warning Themes and Inclusion of Relative Harm Statements on Young Adults’ E-Cigarette Perceptions and Use Intentions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Ce Shang & Frank J. Chaloupka, 2017. "The Trend of Voluntary Warnings in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Magazine Advertisements," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Noar, Seth M. & Francis, Diane B. & Bridges, Christy & Sontag, Jennah M. & Ribisl, Kurt M. & Brewer, Noel T., 2016. "The impact of strengthening cigarette pack warnings: Systematic review of longitudinal observational studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 118-129.
    2. Marissa G. Hall & Kathryn Peebles & Laura E. Bach & Seth M. Noar & Kurt M. Ribisl & Noel T. Brewer, 2015. "Social Interactions Sparked by Pictorial Warnings on Cigarette Packs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Jennifer R. Mendel & Marissa G. Hall & Sabeeh A. Baig & Michelle Jeong & Noel T. Brewer, 2018. "Placing Health Warnings on E-Cigarettes: A Standardized Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:7:p:655-:d:73073. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.