E-cigarettes ‘not encouraging youngsters to smoke’

Overall, 10 percent of 11-18-year-olds surveyed this year said they had tried e-cigarettes once or twice, up from four percent in 2013.

Regular e-cigarette use in this age group, vaping at least once a month, is still rare at 2.4%. Although a shift from cigarettes to e-cigs is advantageous for electronic cigarette companies, one must wonder if it’s equally beneficial for a former cigarette smoker’s health or if they’re just swapping one bad habit for another?

More young people are experimenting with cigarettes but the number using them on a regular basis is still very low.

ASH’s findings back up the findings of the largest study conducted on e-cigarette use among young people. That compared with government statistics for 11 to 15 year olds smoking, which were at an all-time low of 3% in 2014.

AsapSCIENCE pooled all available data on e-cigs to answer a question that’s on the minds of nearly every tobacco (and marijuana) user: Between vaping and smoking, which is better for your health?

A new law will prohibit their sale to under-18s in England and Wales from 1 October and Scotland is planning to follow suit soon.

Most young vapers were current or previous smokers.

But the report also showed playground rumours about ecigarettes are rife: the proportion of 11-18 year olds believing ecigarettes are just as harmful as traditional cigarettes increased from 11 per cent in 2013 to 21 per cent in 2015. Young current electronic cigarette users were more likely than those who had just tried electronic cigarettes to have tried tobacco flavours.

“These results should reassure the public that electronic cigarettes are not linked with any rise in young people smoking”, said Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at the anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which commissioned the research carried out by YouGov.

Concerns that e-cigarettes, which are considered less risky than cigarettes because they result in tobacco vapour being inhaled that is free of the unsafe chemical constituents of cigarette smoke, could lead to a rise in smoking real cigarettes appears to be unwarranted, scientists said.

Kevin Fenton, national director for health and wellbeing at PHE, said this would “further reduce teenagers access to these products and will reinforce the message that they are intended for adult smokers who want to cut down or stop smoking”.

Writing in Public Health, they described a “substantial increase in awareness and use of e-cigarettes in young people”.