Vaping may lure teenagers to smoking, panel says

WASHINGTON — A national panel of public health experts concluded in a report released Tuesday that vaping with e-cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive and that teenagers who use the devices may be put at higher risk of switching to traditional smoking.

While the industry argues that vaping is not a steppingstone to conventional cigarettes or addiction, some anti-smoking advocates contend that young people become hooked on nicotine, and are enticed to cancer-causing tobacco-based cigarettes over time.

The new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is the most comprehensive analysis of existing research on e-cigarettes. It concluded the devices are safer than traditional smoking products and that they do help smokers quit, citing conclusive proof that switching can reduce smokers’ exposure to deadly tar, numerous dangerous chemicals and other carcinogens.

But it stopped short of declaring that e-cigarettes are safe, noting that there are no longterm scientific studies of the devices’ addictive potential or their effects on the heart, lungs or on reproduction.

The panel found evidence among studies it reviewed that vaping may prompt teenagers or young adults to try regular cigarettes, putting them at higher risk for addiction, but that any significant linkage between e-cigarettes and long-term smoking has not been established.

“When it got down to answering the questions about what the impacts on health are, there is still a lot to be learned,” said David Eaton, of the University of Washington, who led the committee that reviewed existing research and issued the report. “E-cigarettes cannot be simply categorized as either beneficial or harmful.”

The report was commissioned in 2016, after the Food and Drug Administration gained the authority to regulate tobacco products that had previously been outside its jurisdiction, such as e-cigarettes, cigars and other goods.