ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In 2014, more teens used electronic cigarettes than traditional, tobacco cigarettes or any other tobacco product, according to the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study. It is the first time a U.S. national study shows that teen use of e-cigarettes surpasses use of tobacco cigarettes, the researchers said.
The study tracks trends in substance use among students in 8th, 10th and 12th grades. Now in its 40th year, it surveys 40,000 to 50,000 students in about 400 secondary schools throughout the United States.
"As one of the newest smoking-type products in recent years, e-cigarettes have made rapid inroads into the lives of American adolescents," said Richard Miech, a senior investigator of the study.
The survey asked students whether they had used an e-cigarette or a tobacco cigarette in the past 30 days. More than twice as many 8th- and 10th-graders reported using e-cigarettes as reported using tobacco cigarettes.
Specifically, 9% of 8th-graders reported using an e-cigarette in the past 30 days, while 4% reported using a tobacco cigarette. In 10th grade, 16% reported using an e-cigarette and 7% reported using a tobacco cigarette. Among 12th-graders, 17% reported e-cigarette use and 14% reported use of a tobacco cigarette.
The older teens report less difference in use of e-cigarettes versus tobacco cigarettes.
"This could be a result of e-cigarettes being relatively new," said Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the project. "So today's 12th-graders may not have had the opportunity to begin using them when they were younger. Future surveys should be able to tell us if that is the case."
The percentages of past 30-day e-cigarette users who have never smoked a tobacco cigarette in their life range from 4% to 7% in 8th, 10th and 12th grades.
For these youth, e-cigarettes are a primary source of nicotine and not a supplement to tobacco cigarette use. This study has yet to determine whether youth who use e-cigarettes exclusively later go on to become tobacco cigarette smokers, of substantial concern to the public health community.
E-cigarette use among youth offsets a long-term decline in the use of tobacco cigarettes, which is at a historic low in the life of the study. In 2014, the prevalence of smoking tobacco cigarettes in the past 30 days was 8% for students in 8th, 10th and 12th grades combined. This is a significant decline from 10% in 2013, and is less than a third of the most recent high of 28% in 1998.
One important cause of the decline in smoking is that many fewer young people today have ever started to smoke tobacco cigarettes. In 2014, only 23% of students had ever tried tobacco cigarettes, as compared to 56% in 1998.
"Part of the reason for the popularity of e-cigarettes is the perception among teens that they do not harm health," Miech said.
Only 15% of 8th-graders think there is a great risk of people harming themselves with regular use of e-cigarettes. This compares to 62% of 8th-graders who think there is a great risk of people harming themselves by smoking one or more packs of tobacco cigarettes a day.
Click here to view more details on the study.
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