Third of UK teenagers who vape will go on to start smoking, research shows

Research shows that a fifth of 11- to 17-year-olds in Great Britain have tried vaping, an estimated 1.1 million children. Photograph: Nikolay Vinokurov/Alamy

A third of UK teenagers who vape will go on to start smoking tobacco, research shows, meaning they are as likely to smoke as their peers were in the 1970s.

A long-term intergenerational study found that the likelihood of starting to smoke among people aged 17 in 2018 was about 1.5% if they did not vape compared with 33% if they did.