--- title: Teens Who Use E-Cigs Are More Likely to Start Smoking, Study Says description: New research suggests e-cigarette use among young people could be a gateway to conventional smoking canonical: https://time.com/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-18T15:07:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:15:18.380Z article:section: Health og:title: Teens Who Use E-Cigs Are More Likely to Start Smoking, Study Says og:description: New research suggests e-cigarette use among young people could be a gateway to conventional smoking og:url: https://time.com/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe8301bc8df924a9/6987788ecd6848d752098f4c/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teens Who Use E-Cigs Are More Likely to Start Smoking, Study Says twitter:description: New research suggests e-cigarette use among young people could be a gateway to conventional smoking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe8301bc8df924a9/6987788ecd6848d752098f4c/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Teen E-Cigs Smokers More Likely to Turn to Cigarettes: Study > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=53ffa832-639e-4f55-9db7-fe74e8ef3ff2&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 18, 2015 3:07 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Aug 18, 2015 3:07 PM UTC Teenagers who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to report using conventional tobacco products like cigarettes, hookah and cigars, [new research](http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2015.8950) suggests. Researchers looked at 2,530 students from 10 Los Angeles public schools. They asked the teenagers about their smoking and vaping activities and found that teens who had used e-cigarettes were more likely to report using tobacco products over the next year compared to teens who had never used e-cigarettes. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal _JAMA._ The researchers cannot conclude from their data that using e-cigarettes _leads_ a teen to use other tobacco products. More research is needed to determine if the link is causal. However, they suggest it’s unlikely that the number of teens who use both e-cigarettes and other tobacco products can be entirely attributed to teens already smoking and then trying e-cigarettes later on. “These results raise the possibility that the association between e-cigarette and combustible tobacco use initiation may be bidirectional in early adolescence,” the authors write. **MORE:** [E-cigs Are the New Cool Thing for Teenagers](http://time.com/3633431/e-cigarettes-teens-smoke/) Some view e-cigarettes as a healthier alternative to tobacco. However, both e-cigarettes and tobacco products contain nicotine, which is addictive, and some research shows that e-cig [flavors are dangerous](http://time.com/3822831/ecig-flavors/) and that the devices, too, produce potentially dangerous byproducts when heated. Since data suggests that teenagers are [increasingly using e-cigarettes](http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0416-e-cigarette-use.html), some public health experts are worried. “Adolescents may be especially susceptible to develop nicotine addiction after e-cigarette exposure because their brains are still developing and are particularly sensitive to nicotine,” writes Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in a [corresponding editorial](http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2015.8382). The researchers also note teens may be more likely to use e-cigarettes before other combustible tobacco products due to a perception that they are not harmful or addictive. The fact that e-cigarettes are sold in different flavors can be attractive to young people, the authors argue, and in some cases it remains easy for teens to get access to them due to a lack of regulation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/"},"headline":"Teen E-Cigs Smokers More Likely to Turn to Cigarettes: Study","datePublished":"2015-08-18T15:07:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:15:18.380Z","description":"New research suggests e-cigarette use among young people could be a gateway to conventional smoking","url":"https://time.com/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/","keywords":["Addiction","Teens","Smoking","E-Cigarettes","e-cigs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe8301bc8df924a9/6987788ecd6848d752098f4c/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-3.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/bltbe8301bc8df924a9/6987788ecd6848d752098f4c/e-cig-electronic-cigarette-smoke-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke","caption":"TIME.com stock photos E-Cig Electronic Cigarette Smoke","creditText":"Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME","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/4001564/teens-e-cig-tobacco/","name":"Teen E-Cigs Smokers More Likely to Turn to Cigarettes: Study"}}]}] ```