Vaping is not a gateway to smoking but health risks are real, research says
- Large-scale study of young teens in the UK found that e-cigarette use does not cause them to see tobacco in a more positive light
- But US research presented last month showed that vaping increases the likelihood of heart attacks, coronary artery disease and depression
The rapid spread of e-cigarette use among young teenagers has not slowed the decline in smoking in the same age group, much less reversed it, according to a new study.
Nor has vaping caused 13- to 15-year-olds canvassed in Britain to see tobacco use in a more positive light, researchers reported on Tuesday.
The findings, published in the BMJ journal Thorax, are the latest to conclude that nicotine-delivering electronic cigarettes are not, as once feared, a gateway drug for tobacco.
“Our research does not support the hypothesis that e-cigarettes ‘renormalised’ youth smoking during a period of growing but largely unregulated use in the UK,” the study concluded.
But neither did the research alleviate growing concern about the health consequences of vaping, which remain largely unknown in part because the practice is so new.