It’s back to the subject of whether the e-cigarette industry is actively promoting their productto youngsters. A study by the University of Hawaii Cancer Center showed more teens inHawaii are using e-cigarettes. “Growth is exploding among adolescents and also we don’tcompletely know why this is,” said the cancer center’s Thomas Wills.Well perhaps these teens read blogs like this and, unlike most politicians and health officials,are prepared to look at both sides of the issue. They realise that e-cigarettes are safer to usethan the deadly tobacco cigarettes and decide to use them instead. It’s quite logical whenyou bother to sit down and think about it.The Hawaiian study polled 1,900 public and private school teens, aged 14 and 15. Nearly30% of them said they had used e-cigarettes. That’s a figure higher than on the mainland.Both the Cancer Center and the Hawaii Department of Health believe e-cigarettes are beingmarketed to local youth and that is where they are making their big mistake.If you’re going to be marketing a product to teens then it’s important that you have a distinctintention to sell to them. That is not the case with e-cigarettes as Scott Rasek of Volcano E-Cigs explains: “We’ve never sold to minors,” he said. “It’s a strong belief of ours. A lot ofother local retail stores share the same belief.”So when you have a retailer coming out with a statement like that, just how do you say thate-cigarettes are being marketed to local youths. One possible way is to go onto a websiteselling e-cigarettes and clicking on the ‘yes, you’re legal’ button. But if people are doing thatit’s not a case of e-cigarette companies marketing the product to teens but youngsters actingillegally. It’s the same as a 14-year-old getting their hands on some alcohol or getting behindthe wheels of a car.One big criticism of e-cigarettes is the many flavors that are available. But Rasek answersthose critics by saying: “Flavors are there specifically to help people have a successfultransition from traditional cigs. If you have more options, the transition success rate willsignificantly improve.” That makes total sense but politicians and health officials seemunable to listen to comments like that.The study also showed that only 3% used tobacco cigarettes. Surely that should be whatpeople are talking about. One suggested reason for the decline in smoking of tobaccocigarettes in Hawaii is the high taxation of the product. You can bet your bottom dollarpoliticians will be planning to do the same for e-cigarettes one day. But such actions hurt theindustry and hinder the good that e-cigarettes are doing in helping people stop smoking.