--- title: E-Cigs Appeal to Teens Who Otherwise Wouldn't Smoke, Study Says description: High schoolers are more likely to smoke e-cigs than regular cigarettes canonical: https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-15T15:25:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:51:12.800Z article:section: Health og:title: E-Cigs Appeal to Teens Who Otherwise Wouldn't Smoke, Study Says og:description: High schoolers are more likely to smoke e-cigs than regular cigarettes og:url: https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6946e1491d3f929/69876eaff887dc31dbe89028/505196337-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=464&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 464 og:image:height: 261 og:image:alt: 505196337 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: E-Cigs Appeal to Teens Who Otherwise Wouldn't Smoke, Study Says twitter:description: High schoolers are more likely to smoke e-cigs than regular cigarettes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6946e1491d3f929/69876eaff887dc31dbe89028/505196337-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=464&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # E-cigs Are the New Cool Thing for Teenagers > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 15, 2014 3:25 PM UTC  Electronic Cigarettes Set Electronic Cigarettes Set Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Dec 15, 2014 3:25 PM UTC Electronic cigarettes are hugely popular with teenagers all across the United States, new government data shows, but fewer teens are smoking regular cigarettes—suggesting that e-cigs may attract young people who wouldn’t otherwise smoke. Researchers surveyed 1,941 Hawaii high school students about their smoking behaviors as well as their relative risk for picking up smoking. Risk was assessed based on factors like sensation-seeking and prevalence of smoking among peers, parent support and academic involvement. They found, in their study [published in the journal _Pediatrics_](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/12/09/peds.2014-0760.abstract), that about 17% of the high schoolers smoked e-cigarettes only, 12% smoked both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, 3% only smoked conventional cigarettes, and 68% said they did not smoke. **MORE:** [Debate Over E-Cigs Lights Up](http://time.com/3274245/e-cigarettes-debate/) Students who smoked tobacco cigarettes, or who smoked both cigarettes and e-cigs, fell within the highest risk category for picking up the habit. E-cigarette users were lower on the risk threshold than those two groups, suggesting it’s attracting young people who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in conventional smoking. E-cigarette users and dual smokers were also more likely that nonsmokers to believe e-cigarettes are healthier than regular cigarettes. “The fact that e-cigarette only users were intermediate in risk status between nonusers and dual users raises the possibility that e-cigarettes are recruiting medium-risk adolescents, who otherwise would be less susceptible to tobacco product use,” the authors write. Part of this perception and attraction to e-cigs could be the fact that they are heavily marketed in public places the authors suggest. **MORE:** [In Children’s Hands, E-Cigarettes Can Be Deadly](http://time.com/47754/in-the-hands-of-babes-e-cigarettes-can-be-deadly/) The trouble with e-cigs is that there’s still not enough research to make any definitive conclusions on their risks or benefits. Some experts [argue](http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/07/e-cigarettes-as-effective-as-nicotine-patches-in-smoking-cessation/) that since e-cigarettes have fewer unhealthy components than traditional cigarettes, they are a better option. They have even been trumpeted as a possible quitting device. Other experts argue that e-cigarettes are just another gateway to nicotine use, and are therefore unacceptable. Whether young people can access them and get hooked is of great concern. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only regulates e-cigarettes marketed for therapeutic purposes, and many products continue to be marketed and sold with little FDA interference. The agency has proposed a rule that would give it more regulatory power over e-cigarettes that would look similar to other tobacco products, but nothing has been finalized. The FDA has also [suggested a ban](http://time.com/75312/fda-e-cigarettes/) on sale of e-cigs to minors. The agency [admits](http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publichealthfocus/ucm172906.htm) there’s a lot that consumers don’t know about e-cigs, like if they lead young people to smoke other tobacco products or how much nicotine is actually inhaled in each use. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/"},"headline":"E-cigs Are the New Cool Thing for Teenagers","datePublished":"2014-12-15T15:25:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:51:12.800Z","description":"High schoolers are more likely to smoke e-cigs than regular cigarettes","url":"https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/","keywords":["Addiction","Smoking","Cigarettes","tobacco","E-Cigarettes","e-cigs","Nicotine","Vaping"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6946e1491d3f929/69876eaff887dc31dbe89028/505196337-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6946e1491d3f929/69876eaff887dc31dbe89028/505196337-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"505196337","caption":"505196337","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/addiction/","name":"Addiction"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/","name":"E-cigs Are the New Cool Thing for Teenagers"}}]}] ```