A study by Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA), revealed the figures prompting a drive for urgent action.
E-cigarette use grew from 0.6 percent in 2018 to 1.7% last year, said the study which gathered responses 25,000 people aged 18 or older.
The age groups with the highest rates of use were men aged 26 to 30 AT 6.3% and women aged 21 to 25 (4.6%), revealed the HPA.
“To put this growth into perspective, use of traditional cigarettes grew only marginally over this period, from 13 percent in 2018 to 13.1 percent in 2020,” said HPA Tobacco Control Division official Lu Meng-ying. “The situation needs urgent attention, especially as new e-cigarette users are almost all young people.”
Asked why they use e-cigarettes, 38.9% of respondents said it was due to curiosity, 17.3% said it was an attempt to quit regular cigarettes and 9.7% said it was because their friends use them. “The UN says that e-cigarettes are ineffective as a means of quitting regular cigarettes, so this motivation is worrying,” added Lu.
Diane Caruana – VapingPost – 2022-01-05.
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