The UK Centre for Substance Use Research concluded a new study on the role played by e-cigarettes in reducing smoking.

The researchers focused on the young population and interviewed people with ages between 16 and 25 years old from England and Scotland. Participants were either smokers, non-smokers, or individuals who were trying to quit.

The majority of respondents said that vaping reduced the possibility of using traditional cigarettes. The youngsters saw vaping as entirely different from smoking and had an adverse opinion on the combustible tobacco use.

The Smoking Alternative

The general view is that more and more people are turning away from cigarettes and take up electronic nicotine inhalation.

All the participants in the study viewed smoking as harmful and saw the e-cigarette as an alternative to the bad habit. They were also convinced that more and more smokers will start to use e-cigarettes.

One of the respondents said that people who are now vaping are smokers who wanted to quit. The reverse is not that common; a person would not be less drawn to vaping because it considers it to be cool.

The Vaping Dilemma

Even though all participants were convinced that tobacco use has adverse effects on health, the researchers noticed confusion among the respondents when it came to the difference between vaping and smoking, and to what extent are the e-cigarettes bad for health.

A part of the people that were interviewed said that they knew from the media that e-cigarettes may be harmful, and thus they were reluctant in using them.

In England, the official institution for public health already declared vaping 95% less harmful than combustible tobacco.

The only uncertainty seems to lie in the long-term effects of e-cigarettes. However, the scientists draw attention to the fact that the dangers of smoking were discovered only after 40 years. Therefore, no one can know what else would come up on vaping.

The incertitude surrounding the dangers of electronic smoking and its apparent lack of adverse effects on health makes young people not to be so open to quitting.

As there is no evidence that the long-term use of e-cigarettes do not harm the organism just as bad as smoking does, young people are not motivated enough to change their habits.

The main conclusion of the study was that young people who took up vaping were already smoking. Using an electronic cigarette tends not to be an attraction in itself, but a transition step for individuals who want to quit smoking or to control the existing habit.

Image Source: Wikipedia