Pod Mod

There has been a recent and substantial shift in the tobacco and/or nicotine product landscape. Tobacco cigarettes, after dominating the market in the last century, have been surpassed by electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as the most commonly used tobacco product among youths.¹ E-cigarettes are a class of products that use a heating element to aerosolize a liquid for users to inhale; the liquid typically contains nicotine, various flavorants, and solvents such as propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerin. A study by McKelvey and colleagues² highlights the ascension of a new iteration of e-cigarettes known as pod mods and corroborates numerous reports in popular media that have documented the increase in popularity of one pod mod in particular, JUUL, among adolescents and young adults.

The study assessed the use of pod-based e-cigarettes, conventional or non-pod mod e-cigarettes, and tobacco cigarettes among California high school students (N = 445). As in larger surveys, ever product use was higher for conventional e-cigarettes relative to tobacco cigarettes, but participants reported using pod-based e-cigarettes in the past 30 days and 7 days at the highest frequency. Consistent with another recent study of adolescents,³ approximately 60% of those who reported ever use of pod-based e-cigarettes also reported past 30-day use (37% also reported pod-based e-cigarette use in the past 7 days). Also, similar to national youth surveys,⁴ a much smaller proportion of ever users of conventional e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes also reported past 30-day (<30%) or 7-day use of those products (<20%). Thus, crucially, youths who try pod-based e-cigarettes appear to be far more likely to become regular users compared with those who try other e-cigarettes or tobacco cigarettes, although longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm this assertion.