Survey finds one-in-five young Canadians have tried e-cigarettes

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – One-in-five young Canadians have tried e-cigarettes.

That is just one of the findings of a new Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs survey looking at national smoking rates.

The overall numbers for the country were down, with just 15 per cent of people admitting to smoking tobacco. But, according to the Director of Vancouver’s Smoking Cessation Clinic, Dr. Milan Khara, the e-cigarette numbers is what was most notable.

“The survey does tell us [out] of current smokers, around half of those who had used an electronic cigarette did say they were using them for cessation purpose, so it seems to be the case that current smokers are using these devices to help them quit. What the survey doesn’t tell us is whether this leads to success or not,” he explains.

“The electronic cigarette numbers beg more questions than they answer, the main one being what is the trajectory of these young people? Who [is] trying electronic cigarettes and will some of them in fact graduate to the use of traditional cigarettes? Would some of those individuals otherwise have never entered the tobacco market?”

Khara notes this is the first time the use of e-cigarettes has been looked at in Canada. “We see from the survey that 20 per cent of youth and young adults have ever used an electronic cigarette, and that is a number that is certainly surprising.”

He notes after 30 days, that rate drops to just two or three per cent.

More than 14,500 Canadians were interviewed for the survey.

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