Young people who use e-cigarettes are up to five times as likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes, according to new research.
The results of a project undertaken by the Health Research Board (HRB) show that users of e-cigarettes — the formal term for vaping products — are between three and five times “more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes compared to those who never used e-cigarettes”.
The HRB report, for which more than 360 published studies about e-cigarettes and health were scrutinised, further states that e-cigarettes are “no more effective” than medically approved and regulated nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches, at helping people stop smoking.
It says e-cigarettes can lead to “poisonings, burns, lung injury and asthmatic attacks”.
“Some of the chemicals in e-cigarettes are thought to cause tissue and cell damage and are linked to cancer,” the HRB said.
“The long-term health effects beyond 24 months are not researched,” the body, which is responsible for the funding, coordination, and oversight of medical research in Ireland, said.
Dr Jean Long, head of the evidence centre at the HRB, said the board’s findings regarding e-cigarettes “need to be considered as part of any smoking harm-reduction strategy”.
“They can cause harm to health and our findings also highlight that e-cigarettes have the potential to make adolescents more likely to start smoking tobacco,” she said.
The argument that vaping helps people quit smoking tobacco has been widely made in recent years, but there is now growing concern at the number of young teens who vape as a rite of passage through secondary school.
E-cigarettes — first introduced in Europe in 2006 — heat nicotine, water, and propylene glycol or glycerine, with flavourings, but do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, the most dangerous substances resulting from tobacco cigarettes.
The vaping market has grown exponentially in recent years, with an endless offering of flavours that appeal to younger people, including banana, cola, apple, pink lemonade, bubblegum, coffee, and mango.
The HRB’s extensive research on the subject has produced three separate publications, the first of which concentrated on the connection between vaping and subsequent tobacco habits.
That report found that in 20 out of 21 papers exploring the association between the two products, “there was a significant positive association between ever using an e-cigarette at baseline and ever using a cigarette at follow-up”.
The board’s paper on the possible links between e-cigarettes and a person quitting smoking meanwhile concluded “there is no evidence of a difference in effect on incidences of smoking cessation”.
Representatives of the Irish Vape Vendors Association (IVVA) recently told TDs they would not object to raising the legal age for buying e-cigarettes upwards from 18.
Cianan Brennan and Niamh Griffin – Irish Examiner – 2022-08-03.
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