A study conducted by the University of Queensland (UQ) on teenagers across 44 different countries concluded that increased tax on tobacco was associated with increased e-cigarette consumption among adolescents.
“We found that higher tobacco taxes were associated with higher levels of youth vaping,” said lead author Dr. Gary Chan. “This could suggest that young people in countries with a higher tobacco tax might be substituting traditional cigarettes with e-cigarettes.”
The study examined 151 960 children aged 12 to 16’s World Health Organisation (WHO) surveys taken from 2015 to 2018. Children were asked about their tobacco and e-cigarette consumption.
The authors observed that adolescents living in countries where more than 75 percent of the tobacco price was the added tax were six times more likely to vape than children in countries with a tobacco tax that is less than 25 percent of the overall price, indicating evidence of possibly substituting traditional cigarettes with electronic ones.
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