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Electronic cigarettes are gaining popularity among young smokers. Some kids are even using them to help quit regular cigarettes. New research suggests it’s having the opposite effect.

The battery operated cigarettes have been around for about seven years. Millions of people use them. They are essentially a smoke-free nicotine delivery system. That’s why some people are using e-cigs to help them stop smoking. Group Health Cooperative researcher Jennifer McClure points out a problem for dual users, those people who smoke real cigarettes and e-cigs.

“There’s good reason to think that doing that actually reinforces the habit of smoking and may make it harder for people to quit smoking in the long term,” said McClure, director of faculty and development with Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

A University of California San Francisco study of 75,000 young Korean smokers found that those using e-cigarettes were more likely to be trying to quit. But, it turns out, they were also smoking more real cigarettes.

“Even though more of them had made an attempt to quit smoking than the cigarette smokers who weren’t using the e-cigarette, they were actually less likely to be successful in that attempt to quit smoking,” said McClure.

The findings of published in the also found that students who did quit were rare among e-cigarette users.

McClure doesn’t dismiss e-cigarettes as a quit-smoking tool, as long as it’s part of a comprehensive program. She think it needs more study. Until then, she recommends proven nicotine delivery systems.

“Nicotine patches, nicotine gum. Those we know are safe, they’re regulated.”

There are an estimated 250 e-cigarette brands on the market and McClure calls on the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the manufacture and marketing of them. Even Tom Kiklas, with the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, opposes marketing to kids. But, on CCTV News America, in October, he cautioned against overly restricting e-cigarettes.

“Any product that can help smokers transition away from tobacco cigarettes, the one product we know kills over 400,000 Americans a year, to transition to the e-cigarette, which we say is a less harmful, logical option, definitely we’re in favor of.”

Group Health’s McClure conceded there are fewer toxins in e-cigarettes, but she argued they’re far from completely safe. Nicotine is addictive and can affect blood pressure. Nicotine poisoning is a risk. And there’s another concern.

“We are beginning to see signs of youth who are starting to use e-cigarettes instead of tobacco products, so they could become the new gateway to nicotine addiction,” McClure cautioned.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that almost 2 million young people have tried e-cigarettes and that the number of kids smoking e-cigarettes doubled between 2011 and 2012.