“While teen tobacco use has fallen in recent years, this study confirms that we should continue to vigilantly watch teen smoking patterns”, said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in the news release.
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Lung health care specialist, Doctor Douglas Johnson at Baystate Medical Center, told 22News he believes the study’s findings give supporters of e-cigarette regulations a boost to their argument.
A new study find teens who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to start smoking.
Global Positioning System and other health service providers are now able to prescribe several different stop-smoking treatments, including patches, but they are not allowed to prescribe or even recommend e-cigarettes as none of the products on the market are licensed for medicinal use.
“E-cigarettes could be a game changer in public health in particular by reducing the enormous health inequalities caused by smoking”, said McNeill.
A study conducted by University of California on Tuesday suggested that teenagers in United States (US) who tried electrical cigarettes were more likely to proceed to tobacco cigarettes in comparison to those who have never tried e-cigarettes.
The report adds that there is a substantial body of high-quality evidence that e-cigarettes are an effective tool for getting smokers to kick their habit. At six months, more than 30 percent of the e-cigarette users reporting imbibing in combustible tobacco compared almost 10 percent in the other group.
But almost half of people questioned (45.6 per cent) didn’t realise that e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking.
Andrea Crossfield, from North West charity Tobacco Free Futures, said: “Tobacco remains the North West’s biggest killer, with one in two long-term smokers dying early from their addiction”.
The research also found that the number of people between the ages of 11 and 15 who smoke tobacco in Britain is at an all time low.
A further 22 percent of 12,055 over 18s surveyed revealed that they did not know the effects of e-cigarettes.
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Fiona Johnstone, Wirral’s Director of Public Health said she welcomed the report: “It recognises the potential that e-cigarettes have in helping someone to stop smoking”. At the beginning of the study, all reported never having used combustible tobacco, such as cigarettes, cigars or hookahs.
