Controls on the promotion and sale of e-cigarettes to children are urgently needed, a study published by a public health journal has concluded.
The study, published in BMC Public Health, said findings suggested teenagers were accessing e-cigarettes more for experimentation than for help with trying to stop conventional tobacco smoking.
The authors said previous research on e-cigarette studies in several countries had shown their rapid penetration into adolescent markets.
The new research was carried out among more than 16,000 14-17-year-olds in the North West. The study reported 19.2% had accessed e-cigarettes – more males than females and increasing with age and deprivation.
Across all teenagers who had accessed e-cigarettes, 35.8% were regular smokers, 11.6% only smoked when drinking, 13.6% were ex-smokers, 23.3% had tried smoking but didn’t like it, and 15.8% had never smoked.
The authors said e-cigarette access was also associated with specific alcohol access patterns, including self-purchase of alcohol in off-licensed premises and the recruitment of proxy purchasers.
They said the longer controls on the sale of such products were delayed, the greater the number of children were likely to want to access e-cigarettes illicitly once a ban on sales to children was imposed.
Only e-cigarettes licensed as quit-smoking medicinal products will be able to be legally sold to under-18s under the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015, which are not expected to come into effect until 1 October this year.
It is currently not against the law to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s although responsible retailers treat them in the same category as conventional tobacco products and alcohol and restrict their sale to adults.
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