YOUNG people who use E-cigarettes could be more likely to go on to smoke tobacco, a study claims.
A link was found between the use of the electronic devices by those who have never tried smoking and their first experimentation with cigarettes in the following year.
People in Scotland aged between 11 and 18 were surveyed in February and March 2015, and then again a year later.
The research found 40 per cent of those who tried an e-cigarette in the first survey went on to smoke tobacco.
Dr Catherine Best, research fellow at the University of Stirling, said: “Our findings are broadly similar to those from eight US studies. However, this is the first study to report from the UK.
“Uniquely, we also found that E-cigarette use had a greater impact on the odds of cigarette experimentation in young ‘never smokers’ who had a firm intention not to smoke and/or whose friends didn’t smoke.
“Traditionally, this is the group of young people least likely to take up smoking.”
The initial 2015 survey found 183 of the 2,125 who had never smoked said they had tried an E-cigarette and 1,942 had not.
Pupils at four Scottish secondaries took part in the study. Only 249 (12.8 per cent) of young people who had not tried an E-cigarette went on to try tobacco.
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