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Original research
Online popularity of JUUL and Puff Bars in the USA: 2019–2020
  1. Hongying Dai1,
  2. Jianqiang Hao2
  1. 1 Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
  2. 2 Department of Finance, College of Business, Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Hongying Dai, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA; daisy.dai{at}unmc.edu

Abstract

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.

  • Puff Bar
  • JUUL
  • disposable E-cigarettes
  • flavour ban

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. The data are publicly available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-055727

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. The data are publicly available.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors HD conceptualised the study. JH acquired the data. HD and JH performed the analyses. All authors contributed to the manuscript writing.

    • Funding This study was funded by National Cancer Institute (R03CA228909).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.