ASH: Though E-Cig Use by Teens in England is Increasing, It is Still Rare

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Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) — an England-based anti-tobacco group — recently reviewed some data on teen and child tobacco habits in the country. What they found and shared generally argues against the alarmist view of teens and e-cig use. In short, though e-cig use is increasing among teens, it still remains rare and primarily occurs among teens which already smoke.

The announcement — which you can read here — hammered on some fairly simple points.

Only 1.8% of children are regular e-cig users. Of those that do, 90% are already smokers or ex-smokers. Over 80% of young people are now aware of electronic cigarettes. Despite high awareness, 91% of young people haven’t tried an electronic cigarette even once.

This means quite a lot where, like in the US, roughly a fifth of all teens end up becoming smokers before graduating high school. Meanwhile, electronic cigarette use, just like among adults, seems to primarily occur among teen smokers and ex-smokers. For many, this is likely to dramatically reduce the damage nicotine use will do to them in the long run.

It’s always surprising when an anti-tobacco group speaks out in a balanced way about electronic cigarettes. While the US’s FDA and CDC are both very quick to raise alarms that teen e-cig use is on the rise, the statistics ultimately show that total teen e-cig use is still extremely low.

Some experts have even argued that, in the right circumstances (e-cigs potentially being one of them), a lifetime of nicotine use can be achieved without significant harm to the user. After all, it’s the smoke that causes all the problems.

Still, statistics like this make it hard to argue that e-cigs need to be crushed to save 1.8% of ex-smoking teens from doing less damage to themselves by using e-cigs.