The fear that the electronic cigarette promotes the switch to tobacco among adolescents is an argument often put forward by "vaposceptics". Specifically, recent studies show that adolescents who experiment with e-cigarettes before experimenting with tobacco have a significant risk of subsequently trying tobacco but also a markedly increased risk of regularly smoking cigarettes afterwards.
It is in connection with these epidemiological results and the fears they can arouse, that Coral Gartner, Herston, Australia, wrote this editorial recently published in Tobacco Control. This renowned researcher in the field of public health and tobacco recalls the points that it is crucial for her to remember when interpreting the results of such studies.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO INTERPRET THE DATA! TO MEDITATE !
1) It is plausible that in some individuals, the vape develops a nicotine addiction and thus facilitates the transition to smoking.
2) However, certainly a significant proportion of teens who experiment with e-cigarettes would have experimented with tobacco if they had not had prior access to the e-cigarette. Subsequent experimentation of tobacco is not surprising in this population and is not necessarily induced by the e-cigarette.
3) Globally, adolescent teenage vape use rates remain marginal compared to those of tobacco, and have even tended to decline in recent years.
4) In adults, an increasing number of data point to the fact that vape facilitates smoking cessation, and this point must be weighed against the possible consequences observed in adolescents.
5) Recent studies show that banning e-cigarettes in minors leads to an increase in tobacco use, which runs counter to current policies, and even mentalities since the vaping associations themselves are globally for the ban to minors.
6) Globally, levels of experimentation and regular use of tobacco or e-cigarettes have tended to fall among young people since 2011 in the US and UK. The arrival of the vape thus seems not to blaze the use of tobacco in the youth.
7) Many tobacco experts believe that e-cigarettes and vape derivatives offer a reasonable prospect of eradicating the global tobacco epidemic, at a reasonable horizon, and if safety studies confirm the first data according to which the risks of these alternatives to nicotine consumption remain very limited compared to those of tobacco.
