Study: Vapes Lack Health Labels on Social Media

Many synthetic nicotine brands on social media lack the required health labels, according to a Boston University study published in JAMA Network Open.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration passed a requirement in 2022 that says health warnings need to take up 20 percent of the advertising and appear in the upper portion of the advertisement for e-cigarettes that contain synthetic nicotine.

“When synthetic nicotine started appearing in products, we really wanted to know how it was being received and how it was being promoted,” says Traci Hong, a Boston University College of Communication professor of media studies.

The researchers studied more than 2,000 Instagram posts from 25 different synthetic nicotine brands, identified whether an image posted on Instagram included the required health warning and, if it did, whether it took up the right amount of space.

The Instagram posts were analyzed using a custom-built AI algorithm, which uses computer vision to detect if health warnings follow the FDA rules. The team found that only 13 percent of the analyzed posts complied with FDA health warning requirements.

They also discovered that the posts with health warnings received fewer likes and comments than posts without the warnings. According to the paper, the larger the warning label, the less comments the posts received. According to the paper’s authors, this suggests that having health warning labels could reduce how many social media users, especially young adults, are seeing and engaging with this content.

“These are brands that I think have a legitimate responsibility to inform their potential consumers that there are health risks and you need to be aware of them,” said Hong in a statement.