Online Popularity of JUUL and Puff Bars in the USA: 2019–2020.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Dai
H, Hao J
Online Popularity of
JUUL and Puff Bars in the USA: 2019–2020.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 13 October 2020. doi:
10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-055727
Background
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a flavour ban on
cartridge-based e-cigarettes in January 2020. It is unclear whether e-cigarette
users will switch to disposable vaping products with a variety of
kids-appealing flavours available.
Methods We
performed piece-wise regression and autoregressive integrated moving average
(ARIMA) algorithms to compare the relative search volume (RSV) of JUUL and Puff
Bar (a disposable vaping product) using the 1-year Google Trends data from 24
February 2019 to 20 February 2020, separated by three events that may have
spurred changes in RSV for each product.
Results The
RSV for JUUL was relatively stable before Trump Administration announced plans
to ban flavoured e-cigarettes. After that, the RSV for JUUL dropped sharply
(rate of change=−8.8 per week) from 11 September 2019 to 17 October 2019 when
JUUL Labs announced to halt online sales of some flavoured products, and the
RSV resumed the decreasing trend after FDA announced enforcement policy of
cartridge-based e-cigarettes on 2 January 2020. In comparison, the RSV for Puff
Bar started to increase after 11 September 2019 with a low rate of change (0.6)
until 17 October 2019. After that, the increase in RSV for Puff Bar
accelerated. The RSV of puff bars surpassed that of JUUL during the week of 2
February 2020.
Conclusion
The popularity of Puff Bar on Google Search suggests that users may replace
cartridge-based vaping products with disposable e-cigarettes in the
circumvention of the partial flavour ban. Continuous surveillance and further
assessment are needed to prevent potential loopholes in tobacco regulation.
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