Vape Package Warnings Can Deter Use, But Current Rules Are Lacking
TUESDAY, June 3, 2025 — Warning labels placed on e-cigarettes can effectively discourage vaping, but the warning now required in the U.S. could be better, a new evidence review concludes.
Warnings that point out specific health risks of vaping are generally more effective than those that point out the addiction threat of nicotine, according to findings published June 2 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The results show that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could do more to discourage people from vaping, by requiring a rotating set of warning messages on packaging, researchers said.
The FDA already requires a notice on vape product packaging: “WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical,” it says.
“Drawing from evidence on cigarette warnings, rotating messages can cover a broader range of health risks (eg, lung disease, cardiovascular issues, addiction), thereby increasing the public’s understanding of tobacco product risk,” concluded the research team led by Youjin Jang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The new evidence review “suggests that adding health harm warnings would enhance warning effects,” the team wrote.
For the study, researchers pooled data from 24 previous studies on e-cigarette warning labels involving more than 22,500 participants. The studies dated from 2007 to as recently as 2024.
Results showed that the text-only warnings tested in lab experiments did effectively dissuade people from vaping, or increased their desire to quit vaping.
Warnings that pointed out health harms – such as "WARNING: Vaping products release chemicals that may harm your health” – proved more effective than those highlighting the addictiveness of nicotine, results show.
Health warnings were more effective in convincing people of the negative and risky nature of vaping, and increased users' desire to quit, researchers found.
The study also found that text-only warnings are effective. Many countries require images accompanying text to drive home the risks of smoking or vaping.
“We found that warnings that use only text can serve an important role in informing about tobacco product risk for e-cigarettes,” Jang said in a news release. “Expanding text-only warnings on packages and advertisements to include potential health hazards and harms of using e-cigarettes – such as exposure to harmful chemicals – is a next important step for e-cigarette warning policies.”
The study results also indicate that such warnings aren’t likely to dissuade cigarette smokers from switching to vaping, noted senior researcher Seth Noar, director of the Communicating for Health Impact Lab at UNC's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
“These warnings do not increase the false belief that e-cigarettes are more harmful than cigarettes,” Noar said in a news release. “This is profoundly important because we want these warnings to discourage use without creating misperceptions about tobacco product risk.”
Researchers are continuing to study warning labels, including the potential effectiveness of labels added directly to the vape devices.
“One problem with e-cigarette warnings is that people throw away the packaging, so if people are sharing vapes at parties, for example, they might never see the warning at all,” Noar said. “A warning that is not seen cannot inform or educate.”
Sources
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, news release, June 2, 2025
- JAMA Internal Medicine, June 2, 2025
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
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