ARLINGTON, Va.-- Retailers tracking the ebb and flow of consumer demand for tobacco and vaping products may find insight in a new study tying teenage vaping to the use of more traditional tobacco products.
CNA, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit research firm that operates the Center for Naval Analysis, released a report suggesting a strong link between e-cigarette use and traditional smoking among teenagers, according to the Vienna, Va.-based Military Times. The report said that young people who participated in vaping were 2.5 times more likely to smoke or chew tobacco, despite tobacco use among teens in general falling from 1999 to 2014.
Studying various reports, CNA researches found “a very low rate” of cigarette use among adolescents who had never vaped, but an “extremely high” rate of tobacco use among those who used e-cigarettes or vaping products.
“The results were so surprising that at first we thought they couldn’t possibly be right,” said Elizabeth Clelan, a research scientist for CNA. “However, when we looked further, we found that not only were vapers more likely to smoke than expected, they also smoked a significantly greater number of cigarettes per day than fellow smokers who had never tried e-cigarettes.”
Forty-six percent of the teens who reported vaping also said they had used traditional cigarettes or chew at least once in the 30 days before taking the survey. Conversely, of the 6,000 teens surveyed who said they didn’t vape, just 5% reported traditional tobacco use.
While the results may suggest vaping is a so-called “gateway” step to actual tobacco use, the correlation is not conclusive, according to Justin Ladner, a second CNA researcher.
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