Young vape users three times as likely to start smoking, study finds

The researchers urged governments to enact precautionary policies to restrict sales and marketing of vapes to young people. Photograph: Peter Lopeman/Alamy

Young people who vape are three times as likely to start smoking, develop asthma and have poor mental health as those who do not, according to a study that lays bare the health impacts of e-cigarettes.

Vaping among young people is consistently linked to later smoking, according to the largest umbrella review of all the evidence on youth vaping, which warns that e-cigarettes could act as a gateway.