Economist: Fears that too many British teenagers are using e-cigarettes may be overblown

WALK DOWN any high street in Britain and you find no shortage of shops advertising e-cigarettes, which have seemingly exploded in popularity in recent years. Public-health officials are worried. Little is known about the long-term health effects of vaping, and many have accused e-cigarette manufacturers of aiming their products at children. Yet, newly released data suggest that concerns over e-cigarettes’ popularity among youngsters may be overblown, at least in England.

走在英国的任何一条商业街，你都会发现不乏为电子烟做广告的商店。近年来，电子烟的受欢迎程度似乎呈爆炸式增长。公共卫生官员对此表示担忧。人们对电子烟对健康的长期影响知之甚少，许多人指责电子烟制造商将产品瞄准儿童。然而，最新发布的数据显示，至少在英国，人们对电子烟在年轻人中流行的担忧可能被夸大了。

Areport from the National Health Service (NHS) finds that only around 6% of English pupils aged 11 to 15 say they use e-cigarettes, virtually unchanged from 2016. Just 2%of the 13,000 pupils surveyed said they are “regular” users, also unchanged from three years ago. A separate study, also from the NHS, finds that the share of British adults who report regularly vaping has stayed flat since 2015.Demand for e-cigarettes started to grow rapidly in Britain in the early 2010s,but appears to be levelling off.

英国国民健康服务(NHS)的一份报告发现，在11岁至15岁的英国学生中，只有6%的人表示他们使用电子烟，这一比例与2016年基本持平。在接受调查的13000名学生中，只有2%的人表示他们是“固定”用户，这一比例也与三年前持平。另一项同样来自NHS的研究发现，自2015年以来，经常吸电子烟的英国成年人比例一直持平。本世纪初，英国对电子烟的需求开始迅速增长，但似乎趋于平稳。