A study from the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) released this week indicated that one in every nine Brazilian teenagers says they use e-cigarettes. The study surveyed about 16,000 people aged 14 or older from all regions of the country.
According to the survey, the number of young users who use e-cigarettes is already five times the total of those who smoke traditional cigarettes. The research used data from 2022 to 2024 from the Third National Survey on Alcohol and Drugs (Lenad 3). This is the first time e-cigarettes have been included in the survey.
Although the product is banned in Brazil, the research coordinator and Unifesp psychiatry professor, Clarice Madruga, emphasizes that it is very easy to buy the device online, which increases access.
Another problem, points out the researcher, is the health risk, since the inhalation of highly toxic substances, such as nicotine, is much greater in e-cigarettes compared to traditional cigarettes. Clarice laments the resurgence of growth in cigarette use, after the success of anti-tobacco policies started in the 1990s, which had curbed consumption.
“We had a gigantic success story of policies that generated a vertiginous drop in smoking, but a new challenge completely broke that trajectory. And today we have a consumption rate, especially among teenagers, much higher and that is totally invisible,” she says.
Participants in the study were given the option to be referred for treatment at Hospital São Paulo and the Unifesp Comprehensive Mental Health Care Center.
Source: Agência Brasil