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Rolling clouds: the emerging landscape of mobile vape retail
  1. Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan1,
  2. Rime Jebai2,
  3. Wei Li3,
  4. Prem Gautam4,
  5. Olatokunbo Osibogun5,
  6. Ziyad Ben Taleb6
  1. 1Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland, USA
  2. 2Department of Health Law, Policy & Management, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  3. 3Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
  4. 4Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Austin, Texas, USA
  5. 5Department of Epidemiology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA
  6. 6University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan; kalanme{at}UMD.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2024-058769

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    The US Surgeon General 2018 Report declared youth vaping an epidemic in 2018,1 underscoring the need for stringent regulations to curb its prevalence. The emergence of mobile vape shops, observed in regions including the USA,2 3 the UK4 and France,5 is a novel trend that raises concerns. These mobile establishments, operating from visibly branded vehicles resembling delivery vans, predominantly market vaping (nicotine) products and cannabidiol (CBD) items, potentially posing a risk to the health of young people (figure 1). While some jurisdictions (eg, the USA) have seen a declining trend in youth vaping rates following regulatory and marketing measures,6 in many areas, including the UK,7 youth vaping has increased.

    Figure 1

    Examples of e-cigarette promotions in mobile retail settings across various locations. (A) A branded mobile van selling e-cigarettes and e-liquids, Le Petit Vapoteur, displaying an offer for first-time purchases (photo retrieved from https://www.lepetitvapoteur.com). (B) Miami Vice Mobile, a mobile vape shop with neon lighting and visible e-cigarette products, engaging a customer (photo retrieved from https://www.alligator.org/article/2023/11/miami-vice-mobile-brings-smoke-shop-on-wheels-to-gainesville). (C) Smoke Shop Truck, …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors contributed equally to conceptualising, writing and final editing of this manuscript. All authors approved the final version as submitted.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests No, there are no competing interests.

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