A study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress has suggested that teenagers whose parents smoke are 55 per cent more likely to try e-cigarettes.

Teen years are an important time for everyone. It’s when we develop many of the personality traits and habits that will stay with us into our adulthood. Forming habits in this period can also be dangerous as it could have long-term effects on our health.

In adolescence, many children experiment with smoking or vaping. But this behaviour can become habit-forming when combined with other risk factors. According to Action on Smoking and Health, these risks include; parents, siblings and friends smoking; the ease of obtaining cigarettes; socio-economic status; exposure to tobacco marketing; and depictions of smoking in the media.

The study recently carried out by the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland (TFRI) examined data on 6,216 17-18-year-olds considering parental smoking status. The teenagers were then asked if they smoked or used e-cigarettes.

The results showed that the teenagers who had a parent who smoked were 55 per cent more likely to have tried e-cigarettes and 51 per cent more likely to have tried smoking.

By combining several Irish data sets on more than 10,000 teenagers (16-17 years old) the team were able to consider how smoking and e-cigarette use has changed over time. In 2014, the proportion who used e-cigarettes was 23 per cent. The statistic had risen to 39 per cent in 2019. But the proportion of teenagers who had never tried tobacco when they tried e-cigarettes has also increased, from 32 per cent in 2015 to 68 per cent in 2019.

The researchers also asked the teens why they decided to try e-cigarettes:

  • 66 per cent said they were curious
  • 29 per cent said that their friends were smoking
  • 3 per cent said it was to stop smoking

Considering the role of gender in the statistics, the researchers considered data on 3,421 16-year-olds in detail. Overall, boys were more likely to try or use e-cigarettes. But the rate of e-cigarette smoking is increasing more quickly in girls. In 2015 23 per cent had tried e-cigarettes, the statistic has risen to 39 per cent in 2019. The 2015 statistics showed that 10 per cent of girls were using e-cigarettes at the time of the survey, but this had risen to 18 per cent in 2019.

TFRI director general professor Luke Clancy explained, “We have found increasing use of e-cigarettes in Irish teenagers and that’s a pattern that is emerging elsewhere in the world. There’s a perception that vaping is a better alternative to smoking, but our research shows that this doesn’t apply to teenagers who usually haven’t tried cigarettes prior to e-cigarettes. This indicates that, for teens, vaping is a route into nicotine addiction, rather than out of it.”

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