Teenagers who use e-cigarettes are smoking traditional cigarettes at rates not seen since the 1970s, prompting fresh concerns that vaping may be leading a new generation into tobacco addiction.
According to researchers from the University of Michigan, while cigarette use among teens has dropped significantly over the past five decades (currently affecting just 1.5% of young people overall) the story is very different for those who vape.
Among that group, around one in three also smoke cigarettes, echoing the levels recorded back in 1974.
Dr Jessica Mongilio, from the university’s Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health, explained:
“From the data I have seen, overall nicotine use rates are still continuing to decline, but more slowly than before. The plateauing of those declines is likely due to the uptick in e-cigarette use, especially by teens and young adults.
“Although this study doesn’t examine vaping as a gateway or catalyst to cigarette smoking, there is a substantial amount of research that does come to that conclusion. For teenagers, it does appear that vaping leads to cigarette smoking.”
Local mum Sarah Thompson told this newspaper:
“I’ve got three teenagers and, like so many parents, I found out they were all vaping.
“What really shocked me was discovering that they’ve started smoking cigarettes as well. It’s really worrying, and I know many of their friends are picking up the same habit. I honestly don’t know how they’re affording it, but they are.”
Another concerned parent said:
“It used to feel like smoking was a thing of the past, but now it’s creeping back in through vaping. My daughter tells me it’s ‘normal’ at school… that nearly everyone’s trying it. It’s frustrating because we thought this generation would be the first to really move past nicotine altogether.”
Disposable Vape Ban and Youth Addiction
Although selling vapes to under-18s has been illegal since 2015, government data suggests that around one in three young people will have tried vaping by the age of 15. The number of 11- to 15-year-olds using e-cigarettes has doubled in recent years.
In response to these trends, the government introduced a ban on disposable vapes, aiming to prevent children and teenagers from becoming addicted to nicotine through cheap, throwaway devices.
The NHS has warned that nicotine addiction can develop within days. For young users, it can also lead to problems with concentration, learning, fatigue, stress, and anxiety.
The new study found that fewer than 2% of 17-year-olds who had never vaped reported smoking weekly. Among those who had experimented with vaping, that figure rose to 10%. And for current vapers, the number shot up to 33%.
“The decline in the likelihood of cigarette smoking is waning for youth who have used e-cigarettes and has reversed for those currently using e-cigarettes,” the researchers concluded.
Different Views Among Experts
While some researchers are calling for urgent action to reduce teen vaping, not all experts agree on the cause-and-effect relationship between vaping and smoking.
Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at Queen Mary University of London and a long-time advocate for vaping as a smoking cessation tool, said:
“It is more likely that the finding just shows that people attracted to vapes are also attracted to cigarettes, in the same way that compared to teetotallers, drinkers of white wine are more likely to also try red wine.”
In response, Dr Mongilio noted that her study looked closely at whether teens were simply more “at risk” of using nicotine products, regardless of type.
“That is a very common perception, but it doesn’t ring entirely true,” she said. “We looked at the probabilities for high-risk and low-risk teens and found that e-cigarette use was really driving the high probabilities. That is, high-risk teens who had never used e-cigarettes still had pretty low probabilities of cigarette smoking.”
This research is published in the BMJ Journal: Tobacco Control.
