Do Young People Perceive E-Cigarettes and Heated Tobacco as Less Harmful Than Traditional Cigarettes? A Survey from Poland

Abstract

New tobacco and nicotine-containing products are gaining more popularity among young people. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence in the perception of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco among young people in Poland and to assess the factors that are positively correlated with this perception. A cross-sectional study covering almost 12,000 adolescents aged 13–18 was carried out in January and February 2020. Data were collected through a detailed questionnaire recommended for monitoring tobacco use by adolescents. The results of the study showed that 52.2% and 61.9% of young people perceive e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products as less harmful compared to traditional cigarettes, respectively. The risk of perceiving these products as less harmful than smoking was higher among older adolescents, males, those who used these products, had a family member who used e-cigarettes/heated tobacco products and those who were exposed to tobacco advertising. Our study indicates the need to consider the coexistence of traditional smoking, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco and its impact on the assessment of the harmfulness of these products. More research is needed to better understand how perceptions of the harmfulness of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco affect their subsequent use.

Influence of anionic species on the low temperature pyrolysis performance of heated tobacco sheets catalyzed by sodium salts

“…Heated tobacco products, which used closed heating instead of combustion to distill and release tobacco components, became an important new type of tobacco product due to their significantly reduced harmful substances and lack of smoldering ( Enomoto et al, 2022 ; Watts et al, 2022 ; Wezyk-Caba et al, 2022 ; Yamamoto et al, 2022 ; Yuki et al, 2022 ; Kusonic et al, 2023 ; Vukas et al, 2023 ; Zhao et al, 2023 ). The heating temperature was generally around 300°C.…”

Novel tobacco and nicotine products and youth in the European Union

“…Another study in Denmark found that 26.5% of respondents aged 15-17 years had at least tried e-cigs and 1.1% HTPs. Finally, a recent survey from Poland [23] reported that 57.8% of respondents (aged 15-19 years old) have used e-cigs and about 44% HTPs, from which 37.9% and 12.6%, respectively, were never smokers of conventional cigs.…”

“…Common reasons to start using e-cigs in all population groups include perceived safety [23,34], novelty and curiosity [12], peer influences, avoidance of smoking regulations [34], and social acceptability [9,35]. However, some generational differences exist.…”

“…Moreover, given their overwhelming acceptance and popularity among the youth, EU MS should design and implement prevention campaigns via social media [12] and educational interventions [23] in schools to raise the awareness of children and adolescents about these products. These strategies may also have the potential to revert potential misconceptions cigarette smoking in never smokers and recurrence in experimental smokers even after adjusting for potential confounders, which indicates the robustness of the associations observed.…”

“…The renormalization hypothesis [41] suggests that the increasing extent to which smoking is perceived as a "normal" behavior and accepted by a non-smoking majority, including the youth, is challenging the success of tobacco control efforts in recent decades [26]. Particularly concerning are the high rates of ever use observed among never smokers in the EU, especially among adolescents [22,23]. Factors such as social acceptability [9] and perceiving these products as "cool" were two of the main reasons reported for US teenagers to start using these products [34].…”