An Examination of Electronic Cigarette Content on Social Media: Analysis of E-Cigarette Flavor Content on Reddit

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Abstract

In recent years, the emerging electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) marketplace has shown great development prospects all over the world. Reddit, one of the most popular forums in the world, has a very large user group and thus great influence. This study aims to gain a systematic understanding of e-cigarette flavors based on data collected from Reddit. Flavor popularity, mixing, characteristics, trends, and brands are analyzed. Fruit flavors were mentioned the most ( n = 15,720) among all the posts and were among the most popular flavors ( n = 2902) used in mixed blends. Strawberry and vanilla flavors were the most popular for e-juice mixing. The number of posts discussing e-cigarette flavors has increased sharply since 2014. Mt. Baker Vapor and Hangen were the most popular brands discussed among users. Information posted on Reddit about e-cigarette flavors reflected consumers’ interest in a variety of flavors. Our findings suggest that Reddit could be used for data mining and analysis of e-cigarette-related content. Understanding how e-cigarette consumers’ view and utilize flavors within their vaping experience and how producers and marketers use social media to promote flavors and sell products could provide valuable information for regulatory decision-makers.

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Most cited references 37

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Hidden formaldehyde in e-cigarette aerosols.

R Jensen, Wentai Luo, James F Pankow … (2015)

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A cross-sectional examination of marketing of electronic cigarettes on Twitter

Jidong Huang, Rachel Kornfield, Glen Szczypka … (2014)

Background Rapid increases in marketing of e-cigarettes coincide with growth in e-cigarette use in recent years; however, little is known about how e-cigarettes are marketed on social media platforms. Methods Keywords were used to collect tweets related to e-cigarettes from the Twitter Firehose between 1 May 2012 and 30 June 2012. Tweets were coded for smoking cessation mentions, as well as health and safety mentions, and were classified as commercial or non-commercial (‘organic’) tweets using a combination of Naïve Bayes machine learning methods, keyword algorithms and human coding. Metadata associated with each tweet were used to examine the characteristics of accounts tweeting about e-cigarettes. Results 73 672 tweets related to e-cigarettes were captured in the study period, 90% of which were classified as commercial tweets. Accounts tweeting commercial e-cigarette content were associated with lower Klout scores, a measure of influence. Commercial tweeting was largely driven by a small group of highly active accounts, and 94% of commercial tweets included links to websites, many of which sell or promote e-cigarettes. Approximately 10% of commercial and organic tweets mentioned smoking cessation, and 34% of commercial tweets included mentions of prices or discounts for e-cigarettes. Conclusions Twitter appears to be an important marketing platform for e-cigarettes. Tweets related to e-cigarettes were overwhelmingly commercial, and a substantial proportion mentioned smoking cessation. E-cigarette marketing on Twitter may have public health implications. Continued surveillance of e-cigarette marketing on social media platforms is needed.

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Flavour chemicals in electronic cigarette fluids

Peyton A Tierney, Clarissa Karpinski, Jessica E Brown … (2015)

Background Most e-cigarette liquids contain flavour chemicals. Flavour chemicals certified as safe for ingestion by the Flavor Extracts Manufacturers Association may not be safe for use in e-cigarettes. This study identified and measured flavour chemicals in 30 e-cigarette fluids. Methods Two brands of single-use e-cigarettes were selected and their fluids in multiple flavour types analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. For the same flavour types, and for selected confectionary flavours (eg, bubble gum and cotton candy), also analysed were convenience samples of e-cigarette fluids in refill bottles from local ‘vape’ shops and online retailers. Results In many liquids, total flavour chemicals were found to be in the ∼1–4% range (10–40 mg/mL); labelled levels of nicotine were in the range of 0.6–2.4% (6 to 24 mg/mL). A significant number of the flavour chemicals were aldehydes, a compound class recognised as ‘primary irritants’ of mucosal tissue of the respiratory tract. Many of the products contained the same flavour chemicals: vanillin and/or ethyl vanillin was found in 17 of the liquids as one of the top three flavour chemicals, and/or at ≥0.5 mg/mL. Conclusions The concentrations of some flavour chemicals in e-cigarette fluids are sufficiently high for inhalation exposure by vaping to be of toxicological concern. Regulatory limits should be contemplated for levels of some of the more worrisome chemicals as well as for total flavour chemical levels. Ingredient labeling should also be required.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Coral Gartner: Role: Academic Editor

Britta Wigginton: Role: Academic Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Environ Res Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Environ Res Public Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): ijerph

Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Print): 1661-7827

ISSN (Electronic): 1660-4601

Publication date (Electronic): 20 November 2015

Publication date (Print): November 2015

Volume: 12

Issue: 11

Pages: 14916-14935

Affiliations

[1 ]College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; E-Mail: l.wang@ 123456ia.ac.cn

[2 ]Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; E-Mails: yongchengzhan@ 123456email.arizona.edu (Y.Z.); zeng@ 123456email.arizona.edu (D.D.Z.)

[3 ]The State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

[4 ]Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA; E-Mails: Leischow.Scott@ 123456mayo.edu (S.J.L.); Okamoto.Janet@ 123456mayo.edu (J.O.)

Author notes

[* ]Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: qiudan.li@ 123456ia.ac.cn ; Tel./Fax: +86-10-8254-4537.

Article

Publisher ID: ijerph-12-14916

DOI: 10.3390/ijerph121114916

PMC ID: 4661688

PubMed ID: 26610541

SO-VID: eb767e7e-80e0-443b-89d6-11a6b0855210

License:

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

History

Date received : 18 September 2015

Date accepted : 17 November 2015

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An Examination of Electronic Cigarette Content on Social Media: Analysis of E-Cigarette Flavor Content on Reddit

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Most cited references 37

Hidden formaldehyde in e-cigarette aerosols.

A cross-sectional examination of marketing of electronic cigarettes on Twitter

Flavour chemicals in electronic cigarette fluids

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