RESEARCH INTO E-CIGARETTES by the British Medical Journal has found that 37 per cent of people surveyed in Ireland believe that e-cigarettes are harmful.
In a bid to gauge perceptions of e-cigarettes and their use across Europe, the researchers analysed data from the 2012 Eurobarometer 385 survey, involving more than 26,500 adults from 27 countries within the European Union. The sample from each country was proportional to its population size and density.
The research found that over 45 per cent of people in Ireland said they did not know whether e-cigarettes are harmful or not. More than 12 per cent said they had tried e-cigarettes.
Europe
When looking at the research for all countries as a whole, the study found that e-cigarette users were more likely to be aged between 15 and 24. The people that use e-cigarettes are current smokers of up to 20 cigarettes a day who have made at least one attempt to stub out their habit over the past year.
The study found that age was the strongest predictor of e-cigarette use, with under 25s more than three times as likely to have tried an e-cigarette as those aged 55 and above.
When looking at all the research as a whole, 29.3 million adults across the 27 countries have tried e-cigarettes, say the researchers.
The results published shows that 3.74 per cent of all current smokers had used e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid, however the usage varied from country to country with e-cigarette experimentation among smokers ranging from just under 8 per cent in Slovakia to just over 36 per cent in Denmark.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say