As public health debate on the pros and cons of ecigarettescontinues, moves to regulate their promotionand sale are increasingly being proposed and adopted bygovernments across the world [6]. A key feature of suchregulation is preventing child access to e-cigarettes.Thus, understanding the extent of e-cigarette access byyoung people and the characteristics of those that accessthem will be crucial in informing prevention and controlstrategies. Using a sample of over 16,000 14-17 year oldschool students in North West England, we found thatalmost one in five had either tried or purchased ecigarettes.Such rapid penetration into teenage culture ofwhat is essentially a new drug use option is withoutprecedent. As with findings from studies elsewhere[7-9], e-cigarette access was most common in studentswho smoked conventional cigarettes, particularly thosewho smoked in greater quantities. Thus, 67.2% of lightsmokers (<5 per day) and 75.8% of heavier smokers reportedhaving accessed e-cigarettes. These figures are farhigher than those for e-cigarette use by adolescentsmokers reported in previous studies (e.g. France, 33.4%[8], Korea, 36.6% [9]), and this will in part reflect the differentage ranges and broader question asked in ourstudy. However, findings are consistent with other recentstudies reporting high levels of e-cigarette access amongtobacco smokers (e.g. USA [20]), and this may indicatethe rapid expansion in promotion [10] and reducing price[21] of e-cigarettes that means they are widely visible andeasily available to teenagers with an interest in smoking.
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