The e-cigarette, promising to help smokers quit smoking, may create nicotine addiction in teens. This is what fear American health officials.
Across the Atlantic, the e-cigarette does not only have friends. Promising to help smokers to quit smoking, it risks creating nicotine addiction in adolescents, still fear American health officials.
Divided opinions
Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in San José, California this week, Wilson Compton, deputy director of the US National Institute of Drug Abuse, said: “These cigarettes reproduce certain behaviors of smokers, which could be useful in stopping smoking. “
The latter nevertheless recalled the results of a recent survey conducted in the United States, involving more than 40,000 high school students. It showed that 8.7% of 14-year-olds had smoked e-cigarettes in the previous month. The proportion reached 16.2% and 17.1% among 16 and 18 year olds respectively. In comparison, 4% of 14-year-olds, 7% of 16-year-olds and 14% of 18-year-olds had smoked cigarettes.
And Wilson Compton commented on the results, stating, “This is worrying because this may be the only new way to taste nicotine paving the way for addiction and smoking. “He continues:” for adolescents, the e-cigarette does not have very obvious benefits. No one wants a young person to become addicted to nicotine. And there are those medical imaging studies that show that trying this product in adolescence, when the brain is not yet fully developed, makes it easier to acquire nicotine addiction later on. “
A gateway to tobacco?
A bell sounded by Roy Harrison, professor of environmental health at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). In a speech, he said: “If teenagers who have never smoked tobacco start using electronic cigarettes, this is of great concern because they are deliberately exposing themselves to nicotine, a substance that induces an e-cigarette. powerful habituation. “
The latter for its part emerged the results of a recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which indicated that e-cigarette use among young non-smokers tripled from 2011 to 2013. “Not only is nicotine very addictive, but it can affect the development of the brain in adolescents ”, then warned the CDC of Atlanta.
Promising in smoking cessation
Roy Harrison, however, admitted that vaping also had encouraging results for smokers. He mentioned in particular the most recent research carried out by an independent entity, the Cochrane Collaboration, the results of which were published in December. They conclude that e-cigarettes have an important role to play in helping smokers reduce their tobacco use or quit smoking.
Thanks to two studies following a total of 662 smokers, the Cochrane has indeed shown that around 9% of those who used electronic cigarettes were able to quit smoking for at least a year, but only 4% of those who had received electronic cigarettes. placebo without nicotine.
Finally, among smokers who were unable to quit, 36% of those who had given electronic cigarettes reduced their tobacco consumption by half compared to 28% in the control group.
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