Data from Action for Smoke Free 2025 (ASH) in New Zealand has shown that the number of 14 and 15-year-olds who have never smoked but use e-cigarettes has fallen from 0.8 percent in 2017 to 0.4 percent in 2018.
After surveying 29,000 year ten students studying in NZ, ASH found that less than 2 percent vaped on a daily basis. This compares to twenty years ago when 15.2 percent of the same age group were smoking.
Vapo and Alt New Zealand co-owner Johnathon Deveny said:
Denvey also referenced a Cardiff University survey of almost 250,000 British teenagers which concluded that fears that e-cigarettes are enticing youngsters into smoking tobacco have not materialised.
This contrasts with the reported findings from the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). This annual study represents smoking and e-cigarette usage across America.
The FDA reported that the usage of vape devices in high school students had increased by 78 percent from 2017 to 2018.
This alarming figure triggered a media panic about the rate of teenagers using nicotine-containing products.
However, what is often not mentioned is that this figure includes teenagers that have tried the devices just once in the past thirty days. The survey also makes no distinction between nicotine and nic-free e-liquid.
While alarming, it is not accurate to report an almost 80 percent increase in the number of high schoolers becoming vapers.
The Independent Women’s Forum commented on this, saying:
“Of course, no one wants teens experimenting with these products, but we should keep these numbers in perspective: vaping once a month does not necessarily mean the teen has developed a habit or addiction.”
