By Markus Lindblad, Head of External Affairs, Haypp Group
Across the world, governments are introducing increasingly tough policies to reduce smoking rates amongst adult populations and prevent young people from accessing nicotine products.
In the UK, we have the introduction of one of the strongest pieces of anti-tobacco legislation in the world with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. This will introduce a generational smoking ban, making it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January 2009. Other measures included in the bill include the introduction of a licensing scheme for the retail of tobacco and nicotine products and new limits on the advertising and promotion of nicotine products.
Many of the measures proposed in the bill will indeed help the UK make progress towards a smoke-free future, and prevent youth access to nicotine products, however, others are almost certain to be counterproductive and lead to bad outcomes.
Foremost among these is a clause granting the Secretary of State powers to restrict the flavor of tobacco and nicotine products. I believe that using these powers to ban flavors would be a mistake. There are legitimate concerns about youth access to vapes or nicotine pouches, and there is a consensus that this issue needs to be addressed, but the international evidence shows us that restricting flavors is not the way to go about it.
Over the past two years, we have seen the publication of results from a number of large-scale studies on the impact of flavor bans at the state level in the USA. The results should give policymakers pause.
A study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined how flavor bans in seven U.S. states affected tobacco use. Researchers looked at data from 2013 to 2023 and found that while flavor restriction policies were associated with some reductions in e-cigarette use, there were also increases in cigarette use.
A 2024 study from the USA examined a dataset of 376,963 young adults (age 18 to 29 years) and found that state restrictions on flavored vape sales were associated with a 3.6 percentage point reduction in daily vaping, but also a 2.2 percentage point increase in daily smoking among young people. This increase in smoking rates, the authors highlight, potentially offsets any public health gains that might have been achieved by the flavor ban.
Additional research from the Yale School of Public Health paints a similar picture. Using retail sales data from 44 US states, researchers discovered that following the introduction of flavor restrictions, cigarette sales rose as vape sales declined. In other words, when states restrict the availability of flavored vapes, they inadvertently push some smokers back to cigarettes, a behavior that is much worse in terms of health outcomes.
In each case, the intended outcome was to reduce vaping, but there was an unintentional increase in cigarette smoking. This is not a hypothetical outcome; it is observable and measurable in the data in each of the studies.
The public debate around vape flavors often focuses on youth appeal, but it overlooks a critical dimension: the importance of flavors in helping adult smokers quit and stay smoke-free. Flavors aren’t just a marketing tool; they are a behavioral and psychological aid that help smokers make the transition away from cigarettes.
Our own research at Haypp underscores this point clearly. In a recent survey of 500 UK vapers, nearly one-third (30%) said that taste is one of the main advantages of vapes compared with other nicotine products. 28% said that flavor is the most important factor they consider when choosing a vape. These are not marginal preferences; they are decisive drivers of behavior. When asked how they would respond if a flavor ban were introduced, only 26% of vapers said they would continue to vape, while almost as many, 24%, said they would switch back to cigarettes. This finding should alarm anyone concerned with public health. It suggests that for UK vapers, a flavor ban may push a significant proportion of them back to a much more dangerous habit.
Flavors also play a deeper psychological role in the process of smoking cessation. They help define the difference between smoking and alternative nicotine use, providing a sensory boundary that supports behavioral change. When a smoker switches to vaping, the experience of flavor, combined with the absence of smoke and tar, creates a sense of progress and separation from the old habit. Removing that variety reduces satisfaction, increases relapse risk, and ultimately undermines harm-reduction goals.
The challenge for policymakers, then, is not whether to act but how to act responsibly. Blanket bans may appear decisive, but they are blunt instruments that often produce counterproductive outcomes. Given the breadth of evidence now available, we are no longer speaking about unintended consequences. The data shows that a ban on flavors will most likely lead to an increase in smoking rates. A more effective approach would focus on strict enforcement of age-verification measures, strict rules on responsible marketing, and clear product labelling, measures that address youth access directly without depriving adult smokers of an effective tool to quit. Youth access needs to be tackled, but we need to remember that for a smoker trying to quit, flavors are not a loophole; they are a lifeline.
