Just as teen smoking is close to extinction, vaping is on the rise

When the annual teenage smoking and vaping survey was released, it sounded like stellar news.

‘‘Teen smoking falls to record low,’’ read the press release from survey organisation Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH).

The drop in youth smoking is great, with the number of 14- and 15-year-olds smoking cigarettes daily falling by a third, from 2.1% in 2019, to 1.3% in 2021.

At the same time, however, there has been a concerning rise in regular vape use among young people.

From a public health perspective, young smokers swapping cigarettes for vapes is considered a win, as vaping is less harmful than smoking.

But it is not harmless and most vapes contain the addictive drug nicotine. Tobacco company documents show their plan to offset smoking’s demise is to recruit a new generation of nicotine-dependent vapers.

There are three sets of data from the ASH survey of year 10

(14- or 15-year-olds) to look at for teen vaping. All tell a similar story.

First, the percentage of year 10 students vaping daily. This has tripled, from 3.1% in 2019 to 9.6% last year.

Second, ASH noted that only 3% of 14-15-year-olds who have never smoked now vape daily, suggesting that few non-smokers were being sucked in.

But a small percentage of a big number can still be significant. Even if only 3% of never-smokers vape daily, that works out to about 1637 year 10 students, according to researchers from the University of Otago Aspire 2025 Research Group.

The Otago researchers concluded that the disproportionate spike in vaping means overall youth daily nicotine use – which can indicate dependence – has actually increased.

There is another way of examining the issue more closely. The third data set zeroes in on the group of year 10 students who vape each day. Within this subset of teens, ASH says about one in

Tobacco company documents show their plan to offset smoking’s demise is to recruit a new generation of nicotine-dependent vapers.