New data released by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) revealed an increase in the number of 11 to 15-year-old students using and inhaling e-cigarettes. The number of primary school-aged children using e-cigarettes increased from 6% in 2018 to 9%. The study found that girls were more likely to use e-cigarettes than boys.
In fact, according to reports, over one-fifth (21%) of 15-year-old girls are currently using e-cigarettes, which is twice as high as the 10% reported in 2021. Meanwhile, only 14% of 15-year-old boys are using e-cigarettes.
Girls are also more likely than boys to smoke, but the difference between the sexes is much smaller than the difference in electronic cigarette use.
Students who previously smoked are more likely to have used electronic cigarettes than those who have never smoked, but 13% of e-cigarette users have never smoked before.
Experts warn that teenage use of e-cigarettes has become a "pathway to nicotine addiction, rather than a tool for quitting smoking.
The good news is that the number of students who used to smoke has decreased from 16% in 2018 to 12% in 2021. For students between the ages of 7 and 11, the number of frequent smokers has decreased from 2% in 2018 to 1%. The government's tobacco program aims to reduce the number of 15-year-old teenagers who frequently smoke to 3% or less.
In 2021, 3% of teenagers aged 15 frequently smoke, a decrease from 5% in 2018 and 30% in 1996. Since the ban on selling tobacco products to those under 16 in 1996, smoking rates have steadily declined, with 49% of students smoking at the time. However, recent data suggests that in the past few years, almost as many students have started using e-cigarettes as those who have quit smoking.
In 2015, the UK Department of Public Health released an independent review on electronic cigarettes, concluding that their harm was "significantly" lower than smoking. However, experts from the World Health Organization have since warned that e-cigarettes are "harmful.
In 2015, England and Wales introduced a minimum age requirement of 18 for the sale of e-cigarettes, making it illegal for anyone under 18 to purchase these products.
Despite this, over half (57%) of students who frequently use e-cigarettes said they buy them themselves, with the most common source being newspaper distributors.
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