Vaping teens tend to move on to regular cigarettes, study finds

New York

OLDER teens who try electronic cigarettes have six times the odds of trying regular cigarettes within two years than those who never puffed on the devices, a study published on Monday found. "We're concerned that kids who experiment with e-cigarettes may be moving on to other types of tobacco products, such as combustible cigarettes, which are arguably a lot more dangerous," said University of Southern California researcher Jessica Barrington-Trimis, lead author of the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

E-cigarettes are handheld electronic devices that vaporise a fluid typically including nicotine and a flavour component. Using them is called "vaping". The researchers based their findings on surveys conducted by USC involving about 300 high school students in southern California. In 2014, about half of the students said they had at least tried an e-cigarette.