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High-Nicotine E-Cigarettes May Make Teens Vape More, Study Warns (philly.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Philly.com: Teens who vape e-cigarettes with higher nicotine levels are more likely to start smoking conventional cigarettes soon after, new research shows. E-cigarettes are sold with nicotine levels ranging from zero to more than 25 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter (mg/mL). In this study, a high-nicotine device was defined as having levels at or above 18 mg/mL. Leventhal's team tracked outcomes for 181 grade-10 students from high schools in the Los Angeles area. All of the teens said they had used e-cigarettes within the past month, and they provided data on nicotine levels in the devices they used. Six months later, those who used higher nicotine levels in their e-cigarettes were more likely to report use of both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes within the past month. These teens also reported vaping and/or smoking more intensely. While 43 percent of the students who'd used high-nicotine e-cigarettes said they were "frequent smokers" of traditional cigarettes six months later, that was true for only 10 percent of those who'd vaped using lower-nicotine devices, Leventhal's group found. And teens who vaped using high-nicotine e-cigarettes smoked an average of 14 times as many "regular" cigarettes per day six months later compared to those who'd tried nicotine-free versions of the devices, the findings showed. The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics.
The study also shows that 6 months after they started smoking traditional cigs, the subjects began straight up injecting the liquid into their veins... which eventually lead to them booty bumping the e-cig liquid.
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Nicotine is addictive.
... but not particulary harmful. Nicotine addicts are way better off vaping than smoking.
The article didn't indicate if these users were already smoking traditional cigarettes, the study only indicates that they were asked if their friends smoked cigs or hookah.
In the high mg group 95% of their friends smoked(and likely they did as well). Without having the numbers of who the smokers were at the beginning of the study, the conclusion is suspect. Another study out of nannystate cali with a couple harrumphs from their cousin NY. This comes out as Gottlieb is re-evaluating the regulations that were released with the deeming ruling of 2016.
This data was gathered from 2013-2015, which was still in the stone age of vaping. Modern devices utilize a much lower range of nicotine from 0-6mg/ml.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2657310
I mean, sure, just like an alcoholic is better off drinking light beer or spirits so they don't ingest so many empty calories.
That is not a very good analogy. To an alcoholic, it is the alcohol that is harmful. But to a smoker, it is not the nicotine that causes cancer and heart disease. It is the tar and other crap in the smoke. If you vape, you don't get that.