Chaffee Benjamin W, Guerra Castillo Claudia, Couch Elizabeth T, Urata Janelle, Halpern-Felsher Bonnie, Hoeft Kristin S
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California San Francisco, 95 Kirkham Street Box 1361, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California San Francisco, 95 Kirkham Street Box 1361, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2025 Feb 1;267:112534. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.112534. Epub 2024 Dec 21.
Use of electronic cigarette (vaping) devices, whether to inhale nicotine, cannabis, or other substances, may pose health risks to adolescents. Those risks could be heightened when a vaping device is "fake," a term we use to include inauthentic, knockoff, counterfeit, and/or adulterated devices, an issue exemplified by the Electronic Cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) outbreak of 2019-2020.
Investigators completed in-depth, semi-structured interviews in 2020-2021 with 47 California adolescents (ages 13-17) who used nicotine products. Investigators used thematic analysis to examine participants' perceptions and reactions to fake vaping products, including devices to inhale nicotine or cannabis.
Participants were familiar with fake vaping devices, which they considered to be low-quality and potentially dangerous, learning about them from peers, their own experience, seeing other young people affected by them, social media, and occasionally from classes in school. Some had heard about health emergencies after using a fake product, but few were specifically familiar with EVALI. Some adolescents were confident that they could detect fake products, although others perceived encountering and using fake devices to be unavoidable. Participants believed that profit motives drove the existence of fake products, especially from informal sellers, and assumed that large companies and government agencies were actively protecting consumers.
Adolescents are aware of and may encounter fake vaping devices, potentially exposing them to elevated health risks. Effective public messaging and stronger actions to curb the fake product supply would better protect this population.
使用电子烟（雾化）设备，无论吸入的是尼古丁、大麻还是其他物质，都可能对青少年构成健康风险。当雾化设备是“假冒的”时，这些风险可能会加剧，我们用这个词来涵盖不正宗、仿冒、假冒和/或掺假的设备，2019 - 2020年的电子烟或雾化产品使用相关肺损伤（EVALI）事件就是一个例证。
研究人员在2020 - 2021年对47名使用尼古丁产品的加利福尼亚青少年（年龄在13 - 17岁）进行了深入的半结构化访谈。研究人员使用主题分析来考察参与者对假冒雾化产品的认知和反应，包括吸入尼古丁或大麻的设备。
参与者对假冒雾化设备很熟悉，他们认为这些设备质量低劣且有潜在危险，他们从同龄人、自身经历、看到其他受其影响的年轻人、社交媒体以及偶尔从学校课程中了解到这些设备。一些人听说过使用假冒产品后出现的健康紧急情况，但很少有人具体了解EVALI。一些青少年相信自己能够辨别假冒产品，尽管其他人认为遇到和使用假冒设备是不可避免的。参与者认为利润动机促使假冒产品的存在，尤其是来自非正式卖家的产品，并认为大公司和政府机构在积极保护消费者。
青少年意识到并可能遇到假冒雾化设备，这可能使他们面临更高的健康风险。有效的公共信息宣传和更强有力的行动来遏制假冒产品供应将能更好地保护这一人群。
