Bad understanding? Clumsiness ? Disagreement? In a recent statement, Cancer Research UK felt compelled to clarify that the latest funded research does not support the fact that e-cigarettes are a “gateway” to smoking.
CANCER RESEARCH UK VICTIM OF BAD INTERPRETATION?
In order to remedy the misinterpretation by the media of a funded article by Cancer Research UK on a possible "gateway effectBetween e-cigarettes and youth smoking, a statement has been published.
In this one, Carl Alexander Cancer Research UK states: " While this study shows that young people who experiment with electronic cigarettes are likely to smoke and vice versa, the researchers did not verify whether young people had become regular users or whether they had tried smoking anyway. Research like this is important to help us understand the potential impact of e-cigarettes on young people. »
« In this country, it is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18, and regular use by people who have never smoked tobacco is very low. Tobacco is the biggest preventable cause of death in the world. Evidence so far shows that electronic cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking and that people use them successfully to get rid of tobacco. »
How the search could be misinterpreted ?
Cancer Research UK is concerned that research on e-cigarette use among young people conducted by King's College London and funded by Cancer Research UK may have been misinterpreted and presented as " real proof of a so-called gateway effect to smoking »
The study found an association between e-cigarette use and smoking, and between smoking and e-cigarette use. However, finding an association does not mean that one behavior caused the other. This study reveals that it is just as likely that the fact of trying an electronic cigarette "causes" a switch to smoking, as it is the act of smoking that "causes" the switch to the electronic cigarette.
In addition, the study found that it was much more common for young people to try cigarettes than e-cigarettes: only 21 people had tried an e-cigarette without being a smoker, compared to 118 who had tried smoking.
Youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline, and regular e-cigarette use is rare and almost entirely limited to those who were previously smokers.
The study therefore does not corroborate the fact that electronic cigarettes are a gateway to smoking. In the UK, the sale of electronic cigarettes to people under the age of 18 is prohibited and advertising of electronic cigarettes is prohibited on television, radio, the Internet and in the press. All of these measures aim to protect young people in particular.
