UNION CITY, Ind. (WOWO): While the makers of e-cigarettes insist they are not dangerous to smoke, a new study suggests they may lead young people to smoke the real thing. 

The study looked at almost 700 teenagers and young adults over the course of a year, all of whom did not smoke tobacco cigarettes and said they never would. “By the next year, 38-percent of the baseline e-cigarette users – those who smoked e-cigarettes – started smoking traditional cigarettes,” said Dr. Michael Busk of St. Vincent Health, who is also on the board of the American Lung Association. “By comparison, only 10-percent of those who did not smoke e-cigarettes started smoking traditional cigarettes.” 

The notion that e-cigarettes could be a gateway to tobacco products is opposite of what is often pitched by the makers of e-cigarettes – that they are a way to help someone quit using tobacco. As to why they might lead someone to move on to tobacco cigarettes, Busk said this study did not ask that question, though other studies are working on a particular theory, “that the e-cigarettes deliver nicotine more slowly than traditional cigarettes, allowing a new user to advance to cigarette smoking as he or she becomes more tolerant of nicotine's side effect,” Busk said.

The e-cigarette study was conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Dartmouth University and the University of Oregon.