Identifying which children are accessing e-cigarettes is
crucial for targeting health information and understanding
which young people may be most vulnerable as
sales of e-cigarettes become age restricted. Our study
suggests that a substantial number of teenagers are
accessing e-cigarettes, including those who have never
smoked conventional tobacco products. However, those
most likely to access e-cigarettes are those who engage
in other substance-related risk behaviours including
regular smoking, binge drinking, drinking to get drunk
and alcohol-related violence. Thus, findings appear more
consistent with teenagers viewing e-cigarettes as a recreational
substance rather than a smoking cessation tool.
E-cigarette access is also associated with specific alcohol
access patterns, including self-purchase of alcohol in offlicensed
premises and the recruitment of proxy purchasers
from outside such premises. Thus, high risk
teenagers that access e-cigarettes are likely to already be
familiar with mechanisms for avoiding age restrictions
on substances. In particular, findings highlight the urgent
need for controls on e-cigarette sales to children.
The longer such controls are delayed, the greater the
number of children likely to want to access e-cigarettes
illicitly once a ban on sales to children is imposed.