Canadian Study Indicates ‘Worrisome’ Increase in Teen Vaping

Prof. David Hammond said that similar to the alarming US rates recently reported by the FDA, according to his study, Canadian vaping rates have also increased substantially. “We have been trying to find ways why this data isn’t robust. We have not been able to find any reason,” said Hammond, a public health professor, “All signs are very worrisome.”

“There are also troubling findings on smoking rates and signs that progress in reducing youth smoking may have stalled,” he said, adding that there’s a need for more research to confirm his results. We all want these findings not to be true,” he added.

The professor explained that as soon as he observed these worrying trends emerging through his research, he decided they were too significant to withhold until the study is published in a scientific journal months from now. To this effect, last month he presented his findings at a meeting of the federal Scientific Advisory Board on Vaping Products, where six or seven Health Canada officials were present.

 

On the other hand, when Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor was recently asked about teen vaping rates, she said that Canadian rates do not match the U.S. trends. “The numbers that are coming out of the States are not the same numbers as Canada,” she told reporters.

Data indicating that an increase in vaping rates leads to decreased smoking rates

Additionally, looking at teen vaping from a different perspective, another recent US study indicated that thanks to this upward trend in vaping, smoking rates are dropping 3 times faster.

The study titled Examining the relationship of vaping to smoking initiation among US youth and young adults: a reality check, was published in the journal Tobacco Control last month, and it indicated an inverse relationship between vaping and smoking.

The researchers concluded that while trying e-cigs may causally increase smoking amongst some youth, “the aggregate effect at the population level appears to be negligible”, as smoking rates have dropped significantly during the same time period when vaping was rising in popularity.

Read Further: CBC