The study doesn’t prove that electronic cigarettes are a “gateway drug” but some doctors say it bolsters arguments that the devices need to be strictly regulated.
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A new study found that high school students who had used e-cigarettes were more likely to start smoking tobacco than students who abstained altogether. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which are devices that deliver inhaled aerosol usually containing nicotine, are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among adolescents, including teens who have never used combustible tobacco. “Parents and teens should recognize that although e-cigarettes might not have the same carcinogenic effects of regular cigarettes, they do carry a risk of addiction”.
Students from 10 Los Angeles high schools participated in this study. The analysis focused on 2,530 students who initially reported never using combustible tobacco and underwent follow-up assessments after six and 12 months. “Of course, that’s a major public health concern”.
For this study, Dr. Leventhal and team looked at whether students who used e-cigs would then turn to conventional smoking, which can cause cancer and heart disease. “These results raise the possibility that the association between e-cigarette and combustible tobacco use initiation may be bidirectional in early adolescence”, the authors write.
They add that “some teens may be more likely to use e-cigarettes prior to combustible tobacco because of beliefs that e-cigarettes are not harmful or addictive, youth-targeted marketing, availability of e-cigarettes in flavors attractive to youths, and ease of accessing e-cigarettes due to either an absence or inconsistent enforcement of restrictions against sales to minors”.
The researchers can not conclude from their data that using e-cigarettes leads a teen to use other tobacco products. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal JAMA.
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The National Institutes of Health funded this research.
