More than a quarter of university students say they are addicted to Elf Bars – one of the most popular types of disposable vapes, a survey has found.
About 27 percent of students admitted to being addicted to the vape, while more than half (53 percent) have used an Elf Bar since the September semester began.
The data also suggests that the number of students who use Elf Bars and have never smoked before may be higher than previously thought.
Of the students who said they used Elf Bars, 51 percent said they had never smoked cigarettes before.
The data also suggests that the number of students who use Elf Bars and have never smoked before may be higher than previously thought.
A previous study by Action on Smoking and Health found that 8.1 percent of all vapers had never smoked before.
The study, conducted by student newspaper The Tab, surveyed more than 18,000 students from 24 institutions through individual university Tab Instagram accounts.
Figures from a university were only registered if there were at least 100 respondents to the question asked.
The findings provide the most up-to-date picture of the extent to which the brightly colored disposable vapes have taken over campuses across the country.
Oxford Brookes had the highest share of students who have used an Elf Bar this year, with 67 per cent saying they have used one since September.
The findings provide the most up-to-date picture of the extent to which the brightly colored disposable vapes have taken over campuses across the country Stock Photo
This was followed by Lincoln (64 per cent), Newcastle (61 per cent), Bristol (61 per cent) and Manchester (60 per cent).
Of the 24 universities surveyed, a majority of students at 15 universities had used an Elf Bar.
The universities with the lowest number of students using an Elf Bar were Cambridge (26 per cent), Oxford (38 per cent) and Durham (40 per cent).
Eleven Bars are the joint strongest disposable vape you can buy in the UK and meet the legal limit of 20mg/ml very strong e-liquid containing nicotine salts.
Each vape contains the nicotine dose of 48 cigarettes.
The tab also examined how quickly students get through their nicotine dose of 48 cigarettes.
The majority of students appeared to be occasional users, with 60 percent saying they bought a new Elf Bar “less than once a week.”
About 15 percent of students using Eleven Bars said they buy them weekly, 10 percent buy them twice a week, and 15 percent buy more than two a week.
This means that a quarter of the student users buy at least the nicotine dose of 96 cigarettes per week.
The universities with the lowest number of students using an Elf Bar were Cambridge (26 per cent), Oxford (38 per cent) and Durham (40 per cent). image used
41 percent of students said they only used their Elf Bar in social settings, compared to 36 percent who used theirs daily and 23 percent who said rarely.
Dr. Lion Shahab, professor of health psychology at University College London and co-director of UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, said: ‘To some extent I am not surprised that more and more students [Elf Bars] but what surprises me is that many of them have clearly never smoked.
‘Until the introduction of these new disposable devices, I thought we were striking the right balance. Use was very low among young people and mainly limited to smokers.
“But in this context, with the huge increase in use among never-smoking college students, I think maybe we need to pivot a little bit in our approach to how we deal with this.”
Eleven Bar has been approached for comment.
