A majority of people say in a new poll that e-cigarettes are harmful to health and should be subject to strict regulations that tobacco cigarettes now face.
The poll, released Monday by Harvard and the Boston Globe’s Stat news service, comes as federal regulators are finalizing a slew of regulations for the burgeoning e-cigarette industry.
About 65 percent of American adults think e-cigarettes are harmful to the health of people who use them, less than tobacco cigarettes but more than marijuana, the poll said.
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E-cigarettes are different from regular ones in that they don’t contain tobacco, use a water vapor with nicotine that is inhaled by the user. There isn’t conclusive scientific evidence regarding the safety of e-cigarettes, mainly because the products have been around only for a little more than a decade, the poll said.
The results show that those surveyed have an appetite for the same types of regulations that regular cigarettes now face.
For instance, 64 percent of adults believe e-cigarettes should be taxed like tobacco cigarettes and 61 percent favor prohibiting TV advertisements of the products, the poll said.
In addition, 69 percent said that e-cigarette use indoors in restaurants or shopping malls should be banned.
Public opinion was more divided over flavors. E-cigarettes come in various types of flavors, such as various fruits or even candy.
Some of the poll respondents believe that the flavors can target teens to pick up e-cigarettes but others say that they are appealing to adults, the poll found.
Opinion was nearly evenly split between adults who think flavors should be banned (48 percent) and should not be (46 percent).
The Food and Drug Administration’s proposed regulations don’t go as far as to ban TV advertisements but would ban sales to minors.
The telephone survey was conducted among 1,014 adults.
