Do e-cigarettes lead to more people smoking analogue cigarettes?
It's an issue that worries parents and politicians around the world. But according to a study of young smokers in the US, the opposite seems to be true. Young people like vejpar would probably have started smoking if e-cigarettes were not available.
Why do young people start smoking or vejpa?
The American tobacco and addiction researcher asked this question Ariel Selya in a independent study at the University of North Dakota. In the study, she compared background factors such as parental smoking behaviour, psychological well-being, and home situation among smoking and/or vejp youth. The study is based on statistical data among 12,000 US adolescents aged 14 to 16 in 2015 to 2016.
Unjustified concerns about gateways
The results show that the background factors are strikingly similar among young people who start smoking and/or start vejpa. And these factors are so strikingly similar that they explain the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking, and it shows that e-cigarettes do not lead to smoking, says Ariell Selya.
"The apparent relationship between smoking and vejpning can be explained entirely by the shared risk picture. And it was already there before the debut" says Ariel Selya.
Smokers switch to e-cigs
Previous analyses of youth tobacco use in the US, but also in Sweden, suggest that young people who have ever tried an e-cigarette will also use analogue cigarettes. Health scientists have interpreted this to mean that vejp use among young people leads to smoking later in life. The alarming analyses were echoed by the media, which warned for a new smoking generation (New York Post 2018)
However, over the past year, other analyses of the same data have called this conclusion into question. Because while the regular use of e-cigarettes has been increasing, the regular use of regular cigarettes has been decreasing. At about the same rate, at least in the US.
Misleading analysis
And according to Ariel Selya it is misleading calling e-cigarettes a gateway to smoking. Factors such as gender, social background, propensity to take risks and the degree of authoritarian upbringing determine whether a person takes up smoking or vejpa.
She is also concerned that strict bans on e-cigarettes may well lead these young people to start smoking more instead.
"Society's reaction to e-cigarettes among young people has been very drastic. We need to analyse the statistical data with more sophisticated methods. Especially before we pass laws that have unintended consequences," she told CNN Health.
Replacing cigarettes
Studies from the United Kingdom shows that regular vejp among young people who have never smoked is extremely rare. On the other hand, it is common for young people who have smoked in the past to now vejp to a much greater extent.
This spring, an article was published in the journal BMJ Journals - Tobacco Control where US researchers also found the same thing. That e-cigarettes have most likely had a negative impact on the number of smokers between the ages of 15 and 25. The trend to vejpa seems to simply replace the habit of smoking among many young people, according to the researchers.
If vejp had been available when I was ten years old and started smoking, I would probably have chosen vejp every time!
I am 49 now