One in five young people sometimes uses an e-cigarette, also called a vape. This is evident from a report published on Tuesday research to tobacco and nicotine products from the Trimbos Institute. More than ten percent of young people even use an e-cigarette every month. A collective of doctors is concerned about nicotine addiction in all forms among young people.
In March, researchers from the Trimbos Institute, with the help of research agency I&O Research and on behalf of the now outgoing government, interviewed more than 4,700 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 about their smoking behavior. For the first time, the researchers asked questions about the use of e-cigarettes. Because, doctors say, vape use is worrying. “For example, current vapes often contain nicotine salt. That is a form of nicotine that is not sharp in the throat and reaches the brain very quickly,” says physician-epidemiologist Esther Croes in the Trimbos study.
Croes warns about nicotine addiction among young people. Nicotine disrupts the formation of connections in the brain, the study states, and can later cause concentration problems, among other things. In addition, the doctor says: “A large proportion of young people who vape also smoke tobacco cigarettes.”
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‘Experimenting with vape is nonsense’
Until recently, e-cigarettes were seen as a mild alternative to quit smoking. However, many young people now use the vape on a structural basis, the research shows. And more than two-thirds of young people (69 percent) who use a vape monthly also smoke cigarettes monthly. “The idea that young people are better off experimenting with an e-cigarette than with a tobacco cigarette is nonsense,” says Croes. In a campaign video doctors are warning that the risks of vaping should not remain an undiscussed topic.
The number of young people who smoke tobacco cigarettes is still slightly higher than the number of vapers. More than 27 percent of young people have smoked in the past year, about 18 percent do so monthly and 8 percent weekly. Even in the 12 to 14 age group, 5.5 percent smoke monthly.
2023-10-03 16:57:38
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