INTERVIEW – After being worried, Professor Dautzenberg says he is convinced that e-cigarettes are more of a competitor to tobacco than a gateway to smoking among adolescents.
These figures may reassure worried parents. During the 1st vaping summit, organized this Monday in the capital, Paris Sans Tabac brought 2016 data which evoke, that far from being a gateway to smoking, the e-cigarette is a competitor of tobacco at French teenagers. This is what emerges from the association’s annual surveys carried out since 1991 on pupils from middle and high schools in Paris. Explanations with Prof. Betrand Dautzenberg, study coordinator.
What does the collected data show?
Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg : First of all, they show that between 2012 and 2014 there was a rapid and explosive rise in experimentation with vaping, both among young non-smokers and smokers. In 2014, for example, 90% of adolescent daily smokers had experienced it. We were worried. But this “massive” increase in vaping is now reaching a plateau. We are therefore reassured because the rate has stabilized among young people for three years (2014, 2015, 2016) where we have the same figures of 24% among non-smokers, 80% among occasional smokers, and 91% among daily smokers.
Are these young vapers addicted to nicotine?
Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg : This is the other good news, most young French people do not take nicotine in their e-liquids. Among non-smokers, we are 64% nicotine-free. The second good news is that only 25% of experimenters start to use it “a little regularly” while for tobacco we are at 50%.
Finally, the colossal good news is the “unexpected” drop in smoking since the appearance of e-cigarettes among adolescents. Between 2013 and 2016, the rate of smokers (exclusive or not) among 12-15 year olds increased from 15.5% to 7.1% while the rate of vaping, during the “last month” remains stable (4 , 1% to 3.9%).
Similarly, among 16-19 year olds, the rate of smokers (exclusive or not) drops from 39.5% to 29% while the rate of vaping, during the month, remains stable (8.3% to 9.2 %).
What conclusions do you draw from these data ?
Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg : The e-cigarette appears to be a competitor to tobacco. It is not a gateway to smoking and it also reduces smoking among young people. These French data are not in contradiction with those published in American or British studies.
My conclusion is that it is of course preferable not to have any consumption of tobacco or e-cigarettes, but in terms of initiation of smoking as in terms of quitting smoking, the use of the latter constitutes risk reduction, which must be encouraged, even if it must be monitored and supervised.
Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg, President of Paris Sans Tabac: ” The e-cigarette is a product that decreases tobacco in adolescents. It should be banned for those under 18 while remaining cautious about convictions. Let’s do it a little bit… “
Find the program “L’invité santé” with Jacques Le Houezec, tobacco specialist (broadcast on April 21, 2016)
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