The state Legislature will reconsider a bill Wednesday that would regulate e-cigarettes the same as tobacco, one day after a new study was released that shows 14-year-olds who've tried e-cigarettes are four times more likely to try other tobacco products.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Tuesday, finds teenagers who have used e-cigarettes are more likely to at least sample tobacco cigarettes, cigars or hookahs, said co-author Adam Leventhal, associate professor and director of the USC Health, Emotion, & Addiction Laboratory at the Keck School of Medicine.
The researchers surveyed 2,530 ninth graders at 10 Los Angeles high schools over the course of a year. Their study builds upon other research that has also found possible links between e-cigarettes and tobacco; the authors cautioned, however, that they did not determine a causal link between trying e-cigarettes and sampling tobacco ones, and called for more research on that question.