Watch: E Cigarettes and Teens: New Study on impact

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ABC NEWS– Even though rates of teen smoking are on the decline, a new study finds that teens who use e-cigarettes are more likely to light up their first traditional cigarette.

The link was found to be even stronger for teens who never intended to smoke cigarettes, according to the study published today in the journal Pediatrics.

“Historically most adults who are smoking started smoking early in life,” postdoctoral researcher and lead study author Jessica Barrington-Trimis told ABC News.

She said most people who currently smoke started before age 18, but still the connection was a surprise. “We really weren’t expecting to see that much uptake. We found pretty high rates of initiation amongst e-cig users.”

Researchers from the University of Southern California followed two groups of high school juniors and seniors (about 300 in total) who had never smoked cigarettes before. The groups were nearly identical in most regards except for one crucial difference; one group of teens used e-cigarettes and the other did not. An average of 16 months later, 40 percent of the e-cig users went on to start smoking cigarettes, compared to only 10 percent of the non-e-cig users. At the beginning of the study, the investigators asked the teens if they had a firm commitment to not smoke cigarettes. Amongst the teens who said they did not want to go on to smoke cigarettes, those who used e-cigs had a greater odds of going on to smoke cigarettes.