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HughPickens.com writes:

More than 40 states have banned the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors, but Michael Greenwood reports at the Yale School of Medicine that a study indicates that these measures have an unintended and dangerous consequence: increasing adolescents' use of conventional cigarettes. "Conventional cigarette use has been falling somewhat steadily among this age group since the start of the 21st century. This paper shows that bans on e-cigarette sales to minors appear to have slowed this decline by about 70 percent in the states that implemented them," says Abigail Friedman. "In other words, as a result of these bans, more teenagers are using conventional cigarettes than otherwise would have done so." Guided by her findings and the fact that habitual use of conventional cigarettes first spikes at age 16, Friedman suggests that bans on e-cigarette sales may be more effective in reducing teenage smoking if they were limited to those under 16, rather than those under 18.

This middle ground solution may provide a way to reduce teen smoking while the long-term effects of vaping, still largely unknown, are being determined. "Policy makers have been assuming that banning e-cigarette sales to minors will improve public health. This paper's finding, that these bans increase conventional cigarette smoking among teens, suggests that we may need to rethink this conclusion."

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