E-cigarettes may encourage teenagers to smoke
E-cigarettes may entice teenagers who would not have touched tobacco to smoke. According to a US study published in the journal Pediatrics, the arrival of e-cigarettes on the market has not contributed to a reduction in teenage smoking.
The new study conducted by researchers from the University of California San Francisco, which surveyed 140,000 high school students between 2004 and 2014, confirms previous studies that found that e-cigarettes amount to a "gateway" to smoking addiction.
"While some of the kids using e-cigarettes were also smoking cigarettes, we found that kids who were at low risk of starting nicotine with cigarettes were using e-cigarettes," points out Dr. Lauren Dutra.
However, the findings of the growing number of studies on e-cigarettes are often contradictory. Recent research by University College London, for example, suggests that vaping can help smokers kick tobacco and is worth trying as a solution to the problem of smoking addiction.
With regard to teenagers' perceptions, a 2016 study conducted by Paris Sans Tabac (PST) found that e-cigarettes competed with tobacco instead of constituting a springboard to regular smoking, which the French capital's high school students increasingly viewed as unfashionable.
For their part, the US researchers have found that e-cigarettes encourage the use of other products containing nicotine and that the arrival of e-cigarettes on the American market in 2007 has not contributed to an overall decrease in youth smoking, which has been fueled by anti-smoking policies.
Do teenagers who smoke have a particular profile? The study found that such psychosocial criteria as living with a smoker or wearing cigarette branded clothing were more common among young cigarette smokers than among "vapers."
In August 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), restricted the purchase of e-cigarettes to adults aged 18 and over. Starting in the month of August, 2018, the FDA will introduce obligatory warnings on e-cigarettes to inform consumers that vaping can lead to nicotine addiction.
At the same time, studies have yet to report on the development of products vaporized in e-cigarettes.
On this topic, researchers have highlighted a need for greater regulation of advertising for e-cigarette liquids, which are sold in flavors that are attractive to teenagers.
This research has been published in the journal Pediatrics.
