Vaping teens more likely to move on to regular cigarettes, study shows

Older teens who try electronic cigarettes have six times the odds of trying regular cigarettes within two years than those who never puffed on the devices, a study shows. When the researchers looked at teens who said in a first survey that they had no intention to smoke, the risk of moving from e-cigarettes to regular cigarettes by the next year was 10 times greater than those who never vaped. The researchers based their findings on surveys conducted by University of Southern California involving about 300 high school students.

What’s probably happening is these kids did not become regular vapers, (and) they turned to smoking.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health

“We’re concerned that kids who experiment with e-cigarettes may be moving on to other types of tobacco products, like combustible cigarettes, which are arguably a lot more dangerous,” said USC researcher Jessica Barrington-Trimis. In 2014, about half of the students said they had at least tried an e-cigarette. In a 2015 follow-up survey, about 40 percent of those who had tried an e-cigarette by the previous year had tried regular cigarettes. That compared to about 11 percent of those who said they had not tried an e-cigarette in the prior year’s survey. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2015 that the devices be regulated as tobacco products due to concerns they would lead teens to regular cigarettes and also expose their developing brains to nicotine.

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