The use of e-cigarettes by middle and high school students increased substantially over the period of 2011 to 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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And e-cigarettes are also easier to obtain, due to to “an absence or inconsistent enforcement of restrictions against sales to minors“, said Dr Leventhal. “They heat these solutions to create aerosols that are rich with nicotine, so now they’re really effective at providing a shot of nicotine to the brain of a user”.
E-cigarettes have grown in popularity as an alternative to smoking cigarettes because they are thought to be less detrimental to health than traditional cigarettes or other products that involve lighting tobacco on fire.
Big tobacco companies, including Altria Group Inc, Lorillard Tobacco Co and Reynolds American Inc, are all developing e-cigarettes.
Dr. Michael Milam with Lynchburg Pulmonology said using e-cigs as a cessation tool is good – but their long term use is bad.
The authors conclude that, “These results raise the possibility that the association between e-cigarette and combustible tobacco use initiation may be bidirectional in early adolescence”.
Government health officials have called for doctors to be able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS.
The study found 49 per cent of the North West population don’t realise the nicotine vapour e-cigarettes are much less harmful than tar cigarettes.
Evidence has shown that although not risk free, electronic cigarettes only carry just a fraction of harm one would get from ordinary cigarettes.
“The review also highlighted that there is no evidence that e-cigarettes are a pathway for people to start smoking”.
The review, commissioned by PHE and led by Professor Ann McNeill (King’s College London) and Professor Peter Hajek (Queen Mary University of London), suggests that e-cigarettes may be contributing to falling smoking rates among adults and young people.
The PHE goes on to say that it looks forward to the devices being made freely available on the National Health Service, something that it hopes will “provide assurance on the safety, quality and effectiveness to consumers who want to use these products as quitting aids”. This could mean that common risk factors may be driving teens to both e-cigarettes and smoking; one need not necessarily cause the other.
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Public Health England said, “There is no evidence so far that e-cigarettes are acting as a route into smoking for children or nonsmokers”.
