The lead story on last night’s edition of NPR’s All Things Considered was the recently released results of the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study.
STEIN: The companies that make e-cigarettes agree that teenagers shouldn’t be using the devices, which is known as vaping. But Gregory Conley of the American Vaping Association says there is one bright spot. He thinks e-cigarettes have helped drive teen smoking rates to record lows.
GREGORY CONLEY: What I think is happening is that you have teens who would smoke, if e-cigarettes were not available on the market. And instead of smoking, they are turning to vapor products.
STEIN: Public health experts dispute that argument, though. They say there’s evidence e-cigarettes are being used by the kinds of kids who don’t usually smoke regular cigarettes.
NPR does not name the experts who disagree with the contention that there is likely a strong link between increased vaping and record declines in youth cigarette smoking. One expert, Bill Godshall, a longtime anti-smoking advocate and the founder and Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, examined the data tables accompanying the MTF Study. He reports in part:
MTF finds e-cigs a gateway away from cigarettes for teens. Among 33.8% of 12th grade “ever smokers” of cigarettes, MTF found that (during the past 30 days) 16% reported no use of cigarettes or e-cigs, 4.6% reported exclusive e-cig use, 7.3% reported dual use of cigarettes and e-cigs, and just 5.9% reported exclusive cigarette smoking. [Table 1, Table 2]
Among 21.9% of 10th grade “ever smokers” of cigarettes, MTF found that (during the past 30 days) 10.0% reported no use of cigarettes or e-cigs, 4.9% reported exclusive e-cig use, 4.3% reported dual use of cigarettes and e-cigs, and just 2.7% reported exclusive cigarette smoking. [Table 1, Table 2]
Among 13.3% of 8th grade “ever smokers” of cigarettes, MTF found that (during the past 30 days) 6.6% reported no use of cigarettes or e-cigs, 2.2% reported exclusive e-cig use, 2.2% reported dual use of cigarettes and e-cigs, and just 2.3% reported exclusive cigarette smoking. [Table 1, Table 2]
