E-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular with teenagers and young adults because of the variety of flavors - peppermint, chocolate, cinnamon, apple and so many more.
A study found that 15-year-olds were the most likely, out of 30 million Europeans who smoked, to consume e-cigarettes.
"The number of e-cigarette brands sold on the Internet is large and the variety of flavors staggering," Dr. Shu-Hong Zhu, of the University of California, San Diego, department of family and preventive medicine, and colleagues said.
E-cigarettes is a fast-growing business at the moment. The investigators analyzed online English language websites marketing e-cigarettes between May to August 2012 and again between December 2013 to January 2014. Of the 288 new e-cigarette brands identified during the first search, 37 had disappeared by the second search. The second search did, however, find another 215 new brands.
Nearly all brands of e-cigarettes offered menthol and tobacco flavors, the study authors noted. Other popular flavors included fruit, dessert/candy, alcohol/drinks and snacks/meals.
About 10 percent of older and newer e-cigarette brands made direct claims that the products can help smokers quit, Zhu and colleagues said in a journal news release.
