April 4, 2023 at 12:31 am
London researchers have sounded the alarm about the number of Canadian high school students choosing to vape.
In a study by Occidental University and its affiliated Brescia University College, scientists found that 26 percent of high school students nationwide reported having vaped in the past month. Additionally, 12 percent of teenage respondents admitted to using only e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, while 11.3 percent reported using both nicotine and nicotine-free e-cigarettes.
“E-cigarettes were initially promoted as a potential solution to tobacco smoking, claiming that they could be a less harmful alternative,” said Jamie Seabrook, dean of Brescia’s Faculty of Food and Nutritional Sciences. Efforts are still underway to fully understand the long-term effects of vaping on physical and mental health, but our research shows that vaping is exposing young people to nicotine and putting them at risk of nicotine addiction.”
Seabrook added that teens who use nicotine-free products tend to have poor understanding of the risks of vaping chemicals, which can lead to uninformed use.
The researchers analyzed data collected through the 2019 Canadian Student Survey on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs. Nearly 38,300 students in grades 9-12 participated in the survey. According to the findings, 10th and 11th graders were more likely than 9th graders to vape nicotine-only e-cigarettes, and 9th graders were more likely than 11th and 12th graders to use both nicotine and nicotine-free e-cigarettes electronic cigarette.
Seabrook said the higher likelihood of dual use among 9th graders warrants further investigation.
“Because this was a cross-sectional analysis and we looked at all the different age groups simultaneously, we could not be certain that dual vaping would lead to an increase in exclusive nicotine vaping. Our findings do suggest that this is a possibility, but need to Look into it carefully,” Seabrook said.
The study was published in the medical journal Children.