Vaping May Be Reversing Decades of Progress Against Youth Smoking

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News-Medical.

Teenage smoking has declined sharply over the past 25 years, due mainly to successful anti-smoking policies and efforts, coupled with rising education levels and lower smoking rates among parents. However, electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use (vaping) has become hugely popular among modern youth. A study published in BMJ Journals indicates that adolescent vaping is associated with increased tobacco cigarette use and may lead to dual use (both vaping and cigarette smoking) later in life.

However, while vaping is associated with a greater risk of smoking, the direction of causality remains unclear.

The data came from three UK birth cohorts (1958, 1970, and 2001). This long period made it possible to trace the fall in adolescent cigarette smoking over time, while recording the association of rising trends with e-cigarette use (vaping) in the youngest cohort. The latest cohort was the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), during whose childhood vapes appeared on the market.

In 1974, 33% of teens smoked, falling to 25% in 1986 and to a low of 12% over the next two decades, by 2018.

The findings showed that MCS adolescents who currently vape have a smoking risk at the level of 1974, well before anti-tobacco efforts took off. Even those who had only experimented with e-cigarettes had a 12.7% risk of smoking, compared to 1.4% among those who had never used them.

Compared to past or experimental users, current vapers had 3.3 times greater odds of smoking cigarettes, while never-users had 90% lower odds of smoking.

The historic decline in smoking is visible in the most recent birth cohort, but it is strikingly reversed among current e-cigarette users, who make up about 11% of the cohort. Smoking prevalence remained very low among the rest of the cohort, particularly those who never vaped.

E-cigarette use has emerged as a strong marker for increased smoking risk, even though vaping was initially thought of as having little danger to youth.

Source: News-Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250801/Vaping-may-be-reversing-decades-of-progress-against-youth-smoking.aspx