More than one in five young people smoke an electronic cigarette. That is almost as many as the number of young people who occasionally smoke a regular cigarette. “Alarming,” addiction institute Trimbos calls this.
For the study, research agency I&O Research interviewed more than 4,700 Dutch people aged 12 to 25 in March. About a quarter (27.4 percent) say they have smoked at least one cigarette in the past year and 21.7 percent have used an e-cigarette in that period. Some young people combine, one time they vape and the other time they smoke.
A group of concerned doctors say parents know their children are smoking electronic cigarettes, but they “seem powerless against the deadly tobacco industry’s devious marketing.” The doctors therefore call on parents to talk to their children.