Connect
To Top

Teens Who Smoke Non-Tobacco Cigarettes May Switch To Smoking Real Tobacco, Study Says

Smoking cigarettes have got to be one of the worst vices there is. In 2017 alone, smoking tobacco is considered to be one of the biggest public health threats that kill approximately 7 million people a year because of the diseases it causes. Unfortunately, almost a million of those are actually non-smokers but are exposed to people who smoke a lot that results in second-hand smoking. According to the World Health Organization, there are actually more than a billion smokers in the entire world, because of that electronic cigarette has been invented.

This idea came from Herbert Gilbert back in 1963, but smoking tobacco was such a huge thing at that time that no one really cared about the idea so it was basically ignored. It wasn’t until in 2001 where a Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik invented something similar wherein he basically used a piezoelectric ultrasound emitting element that vaporizes a jet of liquid that has nicotine in a high frequency that is known to be electric cigarettes since its rechargeable, he thought of this as an alternative to tobacco since his father died of lung cancer because of using too much.

Electric cigarettes seemed to be such a great alternative for people who smoke and is meant for them to stop smoking. However, this also opened opportunities for teenagers to actually try it since it is not technically tobacco, then again, according to a recent study, it is just making them want to try smoking cigarettes even more.

TEENS AND NON-CIGARETTE TOBACCO

Researchers from the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco published a new study in the JAMA Pediatrics. The research basically shared how 10,000 teenagers from the ages between 12 and 17 all over the United States said that they have never smoked cigarettes but those who have been using electronic cigarettes as well as hookahs or more commonly known as a non-cigarette tobacco were asked a year later and turned out that they have moved on from non tobacco cigarettes to real tobaccos. Which basically states that teens who have tried non-tobacco ones are most likely to move on to smoking tobacco cigarettes within a year.

According to the leader of the research, Dr. Benjamin Chaffee from the University of California, San Francisco, cigarette smoking in youth actually decreased in the last 29 years because of strict age restriction, however, because of the rise of the non- tobacco cigarettes, authorities as well as people responsible for the teenagers such as their parents and guardians are definitely having a hard time controlling them when it comes to using electric cigarettes. It may seem as if they are not exactly smoking tobacco, but it is actually the act itself that makes them move to the real tobacco ones they are old enough to purchase them.

 

YOUTH SMOKING INCREASES, SAYS STUDY

The leader of the study even said that one of the findings is extremely worrying since it turned out that teenagers who use more than one type of non-tobacco cigarettes are most likely to use tobacco in the future. It serves as a practice for them, so giving teenagers access to these type of non-tobacco cigarettes is like encouraging them to pursue smoking tobacco. This is not the very first time that a study founded that electronic cigarettes actually serves as a gateway for young ones to smoke.

On the brighter side, electronic cigarettes have been banned from people under the age of 18 in 2016. However, Dr. Chaffee believes that this action is not enough and more action should be done to prevent them from getting access to it. One of the things that he believes should be done is by adding tax on it as well as making the 21-year-old mark just like on alcohol, would definitely help keep teens getting a chance to get their hands on it.

He also believes that parents, guardians, teachers and health care providers must stray conveying the message to the youth that this is not exactly a safe habit. That it is okay not to do it even if everyone else is doing it, always choose the healthiest path so that they wouldn’t regret anything once they get old and could also serve an inspiration to the next generation.

More in Weight Loss and Diet

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply