Smoking Falls but Vaping Surges Among Young People, Three New Studies Find

Three large studies presented today at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Barcelona show that although fewer people smoke cigarettes, young people are taking up nicotine earlier and in different forms, particularly vaping. Researchers say the findings show nicotine addiction remains a major health concern and that public health measures need to address all forms of nicotine, including vaping, cigarettes, shisha and nicotine pouches, not cigarettes alone.

The first study, presented by Dr Charmaine Helk-Lim of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Lung Health and Sigmund Freud Private University in Vienna, tracked 15,056 Austrians aged 6 to 82 over 12 years, from 2012 to 2024. Smoking fell from 24.2% to 16.3% over that period, but use of alternative nicotine products such as vaping rose from 0% to 17.2%, and the share of people using more than one nicotine product rose from 5.2% to 18.3%. The average age at which people started smoking fell from 20 among those born in the 1930s to around 15 among those born in the 2000s, and the proportion of under-18s who smoke nearly doubled, from 2.6% to 5.0%. 'The decrease in smoking conceals a broader nicotine problem,' Helk-Lim said. 'The epidemic isn't shrinking; it's changing shape and reaching children younger than it used to.'

A second study, led by Professor Joan Hanafin of the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland and presented by Salome Sunday, examined smoking and vaping among 5,265 Irish 15- to 16-year-olds in 2015, 2019 and 2024. Smoking among this group fell from 13.9% in 2015 to 11.7% in 2024, after peaking at 14.4% in 2019, while vaping rose from 10.1% in 2015 to 15.7% in 2024, after peaking at 18.1% in 2019. A growing share of vapers had never smoked cigarettes first, rising from 50.2% in 2015 to 76.2% in 2024.

A third study by the same institute, presented by Professor Luke Clancy, followed 3,380 young people from age 13 to 25 and found that both smoking and vaping generally increased into young adulthood, with 38% using e-cigarettes and 25% smoking by age 25. Those least likely to be smokers by 25 were people who had never vaped.

Dr Filippos Filippidis, chair of the ERS Tobacco Control Committee at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the research, said e-cigarettes have only been widely available for the last 10 to 15 years, but research has already shown that vaping harms the lungs and cardiovascular health.