19% of adolescents vape and 13% smoke, according to a study

19.2% of adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 smoke or consume some derivative of tobacco, but vapers are preferred by one in five, followed by hookahs, which are used by 14.3%, while 13 .1% opted for conventional cigarettes.

These are some of the data from the XXIV survey carried out by the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC) on the occasion of Smoke-Free Week, which is celebrated from May 25 to 31, and which this year has the motto “Better the ride than smoke or vape.”

The study, which has broken a record of participation with a total of 9,711 people from all the autonomous communities, demonstrates how the new products derived from tobacco are “the gateway” to conventional cigarettes for the youngest, lamented Susana Morena, Coordinator of the Smoke Free Week.

Thus, 19.2% of kids between the ages of 14 and 18 declare themselves to be smokers or vapers, and electronic cigarettes are precisely the ones they prefer, since they are consumed by up to 20.8% of adolescents.

Meanwhile, 14.3% consume hookah, 13.1% opt for conventional cigarettes and 7.5% consume tobacco mixed with cannabis (joint).

The figures are inverted in the following age group: young people between 19 and 24 who smoke amount to 32.3%, but in this range, the most consumed product is the conventional cigarette (19.1%), followed by vapers (13.8%) and hookahs (11.5%). The proportion of users of tobacco mixed with cannabis remains at 6.7%.

All of which demonstrates, in the words of Morena, that “the electronic cigarette is the way in which young people start to move on to conventional tobacco.”

And why are they started? “Because of the false sense of innocuousness of these devices that has been massively disclosed in marketing campaigns with commercial interests aimed at young people,” the doctor has censured.

In fact, only 62% of those surveyed know that the hookah or water pipe is harmful to their health, whether it is used with tobacco or with non-nicotine products; on the contrary, 29.7% ignore its harmful effects, a percentage that rises to 40% among smokers.

All this despite the fact that there is already scientific evidence on its damage to the respiratory tract despite the short time they have been on the market, and the “that will come out in the coming years.”

An example of all this is the recent video that has gone viral of a minor who is given several vapers for her communion; It is not that they are already targeting adolescents, it is that little by little advertising is permeating the little ones, with attractive devices “in the form of sweets” that are sold on the Internet with which “something that had been achieved is being normalized denormalize” with anti-smoking regulations.

For all these reasons, the semFYC has urged the authorities to undertake legislative initiatives on these devices and information campaigns, to be able to be directed at the school and youth sphere.

“It is very serious that, in the middle of 2023, 30% of young people between the ages of 19 and 34 consider themselves smokers: we have to review the message we are giving and why our youth continue to get hooked on tobacco and its derivatives”, he concluded Paula Chao, vice president of the scientific society.