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E-cigarette vending machines: a new access channel for youth in Guatemala City
  1. Sophia Mus1,
  2. Jose Monzon1,
  3. James F Thrasher2,3,
  4. Joaquin Barnoya1,4
  1. 1 Departamento de Investigacion, Unidad de Cirugia Cardiovascular de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala
  2. 2 Department of Health Promotion, Education & Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
  3. 3 Department of Tobacco Research, Center for Population Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
  4. 4 Research Department, Integra Cancer Institute, Guatemala City, Guatemala
  1. Correspondence to Dr Joaquin Barnoya, Departamento de Investigacion, Unidad de Cirugia Cardiovascular de Guatemala, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala City 01011, Guatemala; jbarnoya{at}post.harvard.edu

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Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) availability and use has increased worldwide since they were first introduced around 2007 and became increasingly popular among youth starting around 2014.1 2 In the USA, Mexico and Guatemala, the prevalence of last 30-day use of e-cigarettes among adolescents is higher than for conventional cigarettes.3–5 In Guatemala, in a sample of 2870 adolescents, 28% were current users of e-cigarettes.3 Experimental evidence suggests that e-cigarettes appeal to adolescents due to their variety of flavours and lower perceived harm than cigarettes.6 7 Furthermore, the e-cigarette market (eg, nicotine content, flavours, voltage, device type) is rapidly evolving making it challenging to regulate.8–10 E-cigarettes are also highly accessible by youth, through friends, e-cigarette shops and the internet and social media.11 12

Guatemala, an upper-middle-income country, …

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @mishoo8

  • Contributors JB conceived the idea to write this manuscript. SM wrote the first draft. JM, JT, JB and SM contributed to the revision and edits of this manuscript.

  • Funding This study was funded by Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health (R01 TW010652).

  • Competing interests None declared.

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