7 June 2024:
Last updated 24 Novemeber 2024
"Evidence offered in support of the gateway hypothesis does not establish that ENDS use causes youth to also smoke cigarettes. Instead, this evidence is better interpreted as resulting from a common liability to use both ENDS and cigarettes. Population-level trends are inconsistent with the gateway hypothesis, and instead are consistent with (but do not prove) ENDS displacing cigarettes. Policies based on misinterpreting a causal gateway effect may be ineffective at best, and risk the negative unintended consequence of increased cigarette smoking."
The full paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12954-024-01034-6
Update 18 July 2024:
Increased e-cigarette use prevalence is associated with decreased smoking prevalence among US adults!
"Observed smoking prevalence in the e-cigarette era was significantly lower than expected based on pre-e-cigarette era trends; these discrepancies in smoking prevalence grew as e-cigarette use prevalence increased, and were larger in subpopulations with higher e-cigarette use, especially younger adults aged 18–34"
Update 24 Novemember 2024:
A recent study has debunked the long-standing myth that nicotine alternatives, such as e-cigarettes and pouches, act as a gateway to cigarette smoking among young people. Contrary to fears propagated by anti-nicotine activists, the study reveals that smoking rates among U.S. high school students have plummeted over the past decade—even as vaping surged in popularity.