Teens More Likely to Use E-Cigarettes if Their Parents Smoke: Study

A new study finds teens are much more likely to vape if their parents smoke cigarettes, HealthDay reports.

Researchers studied more than 6,000 teens ages 17 and 18 in Ireland. They found those whose parents smoked cigarettes were 55% more likely to have tried e-cigarettes and 51% more likely to have tried smoking cigarettes compared with teens whose parents didn’t smoke.

The main reasons teens gave for trying e-cigarettes were curiosity (66%) and because their friends were vaping (29%). Just 3% said they vaped in order to quit smoking, the researchers reported at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.

“These findings are worrying, not just for teenagers in Ireland, but for families all around the world,” said Professor Jonathan Grigg, chair of the European Respiratory Society’s Tobacco Control Committee, who was not involved in the research. “We know already that children of parents who smoke are more likely to take up smoking. This study suggests that teenagers are also influenced by smoking parents to start using e-cigarettes and become addicted to nicotine.”