<p class="title">E-cigarettes - often touted as a tool to help smokers kick the butt - may encourage high school students to start smoking regularly in later life, a study has found.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study, published in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal, included 44,163 students from 89 school.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada looked at e-cigarette use and classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Among students in both study phases, youth who used e-cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after one year, a finding consistent with other similar study types.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time. This means that if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date, researchers said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," said David Hammond, from the University of Waterloo in Canada.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that 'common factors' account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake, researchers said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"While our study provides strong evidence that e-cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," said Hammond.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking," he said. </p>
<p class="title">E-cigarettes - often touted as a tool to help smokers kick the butt - may encourage high school students to start smoking regularly in later life, a study has found.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The study, published in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal, included 44,163 students from 89 school.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada looked at e-cigarette use and classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Among students in both study phases, youth who used e-cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after one year, a finding consistent with other similar study types.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time. This means that if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date, researchers said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," said David Hammond, from the University of Waterloo in Canada.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that 'common factors' account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake, researchers said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"While our study provides strong evidence that e-cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," said Hammond.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking," he said. </p>