A new study shows that vaping is not a gateway to smoking for youth as previously speculated.

Since the advent of e-cigarettes there’s been a concern of its usage by young people. It was speculated that young people who experimented with e-cigarettes were also likely to start smoking. This insinuated that vaping is a gateway to smoking.

A new study that analysed five separate surveys in the UK, and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health last week, found that this was not true.

The surveys were conducted between 2015 and 2017 of 60 000 teenagers between the ages of 11 and 16 years.

The study found that young people who experiment with e-cigarettes are already likely to experiment with smoking. Thus there’s no evidence to support that vaping causes smoking. It might be the opposite; however, the study found. The rate of smoking amongst young people continue to fall in countries where e-cigarettes are available. It seems that vaping might be diverting young people from smoking.

To read the full report, click here.