Kristjansson Alfgeir L, Sigfusdottir Inga Dora
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA.
Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, 1 Menntavegur, Reykjavik, 101, Iceland.
BMC Med. 2015 Apr 30;13:103. doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0339-y.
Electronic cigarette (EC) use is currently subject to a debate concerning safety, regulation need, and probable contribution to smoking cessation. An important gap in this debate is the lack of distinction between minors and adults. This is problematic because other principles of prevention apply to long-term users (such as most adult smokers) and experimental or probable users (more common in minors). This commentary focuses on two less discussed aspects of the EC debate: 1) whether EC use is likely to be additive to conventional cigarette and other tobacco use among minors, and 2) if EC use is likely to contribute to an overall increase in alcohol consumption and other drug use among minors. We find the results by Hughes et al. and others indeed suggestive of both. We conclude that EC use is likely to be additive to other tobacco use and increase the risk for alcohol use, therefore serving as another potential route to hazard for even mildly risk-prone minors. Policies to restrict the access and use of EC among minors are encouraged.
目前，电子烟的使用引发了一场关于安全性、监管必要性以及对戒烟可能贡献的辩论。这场辩论中一个重要的空白在于未区分未成年人和成年人。这存在问题，因为其他预防原则适用于长期使用者（如大多数成年吸烟者）以及尝试性或可能使用者（在未成年人中更为常见）。本评论聚焦于电子烟辩论中较少被讨论的两个方面：1）在未成年人中，使用电子烟是否可能叠加传统香烟及其他烟草制品的使用；2）使用电子烟是否可能导致未成年人酒精消费及其他药物使用的总体增加。我们发现休斯等人及其他研究的结果确实表明了这两点。我们得出结论，使用电子烟可能会叠加其他烟草制品的使用，并增加酒精使用风险，因此即使对于轻度易涉险的未成年人而言，它也是另一条潜在的危害途径。鼓励制定限制未成年人获取和使用电子烟的政策。
