Young teenagers are not using e-cigarettes as substitutes for tobacco, according to a major survey today.
Researchers said a significant minority of school-aged children and teenagers have tried the devices – but they are not used as a substitute for cigarettes.
The findings, revealed by Cancer Research UK, are timely in the wake of the charity’s outspoken objections this week to proposals for a crack-down on e-cigarettes in Wales.
They were being reported at a major conference on smoking cessation in Manchester, UK, today and come from a survey of some 1,205 children aged 11 to 16.
It found that 12% had tried e-cigarettes but fewer than 2% had used them more than once a month.
Just 3% of non-smokers had tried the devices while the only regular users were also regular users of tobacco.
Researcher Professor Linda Bauld, of Stirling University, Scotland, said: “There’s a common perception that the rise we’ve seen in the use of electronic cigarettes will lead to a new generation of adults who have never smoked but are dependent on nicotine. This fear is based on the expectation that due to the appeal of the products, children who have never used tobacco will be attracted to e-cigarettes and start to use them regularly.
“Our survey is in line with others in the different parts of the UK that show this is not happening. Young people are certainly experimenting with e-cigarettes, some of which do contain nicotine.
"However, our data show that at the moment this experimentation is not translating into regular use.”
Alison Cox, from the charity, said: “These data on electronic cigarette use in youth suggests that e-cigarettes are not serving as a gateway to tobacco. It’s reassuring that rates of smoking in young people are continuing to fall at a time when e-cigarette use has been rising."
* A second study, published yesterday, says that English children have 80% less exposure to second-hand smoke than in 1998.
The decline in "passive smoking" follows extensive legislation to prevent smoking in public spaces.
Researchers, reporting in the journal Addiction, found that 87.3% of homes are now smoke-free compared with 63% in 1998.
Jarvis MJ and Feyerabend C. Recent trends in children’s exposure to second-hand smoke in England: cotinine evidence from the Health Survey for England. Addiction June 2015; 110: doi: 10.1111/add.12962 [abstract]
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