Electronic Cigarette, one of the vectors of decrease in the number of teenage smokers in the USA

A new study in the USA

A new study (Electronic Cigarettes, Nicotine Use Trends, and Use Initiation Ages among US Adolescents from 1999–2018 - Addiction - doi: 10.1111 / add.15099) has been published in a medical journal called "Addiction".

It was carried out by two researchers based on the results of data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). Its objective was to compare trends in the prevalence of nicotine use among American adolescents aged 12 to 17 between two periods: 1999-2009 and 1999-2018.

According to the study, the prevalence of exclusive use of cigarettes decreased from 1999 to 2018, while the prevalence of exclusive use and dual use of the personal vaporizer increased from 2009.

It also notes that, as of 2014, the age of initiation to combustible cigarettes would also have increased while the age of legal use of the vape is still the same and higher than that of combustible cigarettes.

But according to the researchers, electronic cigarettes may have offset conventional smoking among American teens between 2010 and 2018 by maintaining the prevalence of total nicotine use and diverting them from conventional, more harmful smoking.

Vape, a dead end in the USA

In 2014, a CDC report indicated that the number of young vapers fell from 1.5% compared to 13.4%. This increase is accompanied by a reduction of the number of young adolescents who smoke.

In 2018, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the rate of smokers in the U.S. has never been as lower. This news, although excellent for public health, was not picked up by mainstream media.

This not prevent the vape from being accused daily of attracting young people to nicotine.

Different states and anti-smoking associations regularly point to the increase of the number of young people who smoke, forgetting to mention the drop in consumption of traditionnal cigarettes that it seems to cause.