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October 26, 2021 People start smoking earlier and often do so with the electronic cigarette, increasingly popular among the very young, who seem to prefer it to traditional tobacco, although it is not without health risks, still partly unknown, and often represents the "gateway" to traditional smoking. In 4 out of 100 cases the first experience of "vape" arrives already in elementary school.  



The Italian Society of Infantile Respiratory Diseases (SIMRI) has launched the alarm, with ISS data, which, on the occasion of the National Congress of the Society underway in Verona, underlines: first we start. the harder it is to stop.



A study conducted on 170,000 Italian students between the ages of 15 and 19 shows that the prevalence of those who smoked tobacco at least once in their life decreased between 2012 and 2018, while the rate jumped from 32.9% to 52%. share of those who have used an e-cig at least once. Furthermore, according to a survey by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (May 2021), 43.4% of children have tried electronic cigarettes in middle school but there is a 4.1% who have already done so in elementary school.



"Young people are now the main target of the advertising campaigns of e-cigs brands: to attract them are the aromas, which accentuate the perception that the electronic cigarette is less harmful than it really is" explain the pediatricians. "The immediate damage from electronic smoke is in the respiratory tract, such as susceptibility to asthma and obliterating bronchiolitis", underlines Massimo Landi, vice president of Simri. "For those who smoke tobacco, switching to electronic smoking may not involve greater risks than those already made by the traditional cigarette, but for those who have never smoked the door opens to exposure to toxic substances that will certainly cause damage,but which to date are still to be investigated - warns Landi - We must pay attention especially to the adolescent range ".



Other risks then come from the new devices (pod-mods) that "allow you to vape other substances other than those present in tobacco smoke".

And, above all, "young people who have tried electronic cigarettes at least once have a 3-4 times greater risk of starting to smoke traditional ones", concludes Maria Elisa Di Cicco, councilor of Simri.