Toronto Sep 18 (IANS) Teenagers who try vape may be at double the risk for developing addiction to smoking tobacco cigarettes according to a new study.
The findings showed that students in grades 7 to 12 who had tried an e-cigarette are 2.16 times more likely to be susceptible to cigarette smoking.
"Since e-cigarettes came on the market there has been a debate about whether their use may lead to cigarette smoking. The answer among adolescents is yes " said Bruce Baskerville a researcher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada.
E-cigarettes can contain nicotine but not many of the harmful substances produced by smoking tobacco such as tar or carbon monoxide.
These products work through an inhalation-activated system that heats a solution to create an inhalable aerosol often known as vapour.
"While preliminary evidence suggests that e-cigarettes contain fewer toxic chemicals than traditional cigarettes our findings suggest that a potential increase in harmful cigarette use may follow as e-cigarette use continues to rise among adolescent populations " Baskerville added.
The study was published in the journal Preventive Medicine.
"This study supports the restricting of e-cigarette access to minors which have been shown to have heightened risk to initiate smoking " Baskerville said.
However more research is needed on additional contributing risk factors as well as longitudinal data to evaluate the complex relationship between e-cigarette use and tobacco cigarette use in adolescence.
--IANS
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