E-cigarette flavours and vaping as a social practice: implications for tobacco control

E-liquid flavours are perhaps the most materially disruptive aspect of vaping compared with smoking, especially for people who smoke tobacco and who wish to quit. A better understanding of whether and how e-liquid flavours create personal and social value for people who smoke may offer insights into how vaping has become a social practice among this group. These insights may be useful for countries such as New Zealand, where health authorities have endorsed e-cigarettes to help achieve the Government's Smokefree 2025 goal. We drew on longitudinal in-depth interviews with 11 New Zealand young adults (19-29 years old) who smoked tobacco and who were willing to try an e-cigarette to stop smoking. Each participant was interviewed five times over 18-24 weeks during 2018-2019 and at every interview asked about their e-liquid flavour use and perceptions and experiences of these flavours compared to smoking. We thematically analysed the transcripts with an emphasis on exploring tensions between old and new skills, meanings, and emotions associated with smoking, vaping, and e-liquid flavours. We found that flavours could disrupt tobacco's value proposition by provoking emotional responses that had a crucial impact on participants' feelings of emotional security when vaping. Competence to deal with initially unsettling feelings when vaping was key to helping participants reorient meanings and emotions and embed vaping in their lives. As e-liquids are purchased regularly, and flavours ideally sampled in-person, countries could optimise vaping regulations by limiting online sales and mandating cessation advice and support at all point-of-sale interactions.