A new study seems to support evidence that e-cigarettes lure teenagers into smoking regular cigarettes, raising concern that the products could lead to a new generation of nicotine addicts.

In the new study, which was published Monday by the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that 29 percent of almost 2,000 ninth- and 10th-graders in Oahu, Hawaii, had tried electronic cigarettes at least once, while 18 percent of them had used the devices in the last month. The survey also found that among the students who admitted to using e-cigs, 41 percent had also tried regular cigarettes.

The number of teens using e-cigarettes, a battery-operated device that delivers nicotine to users as a vapor, has increased substantially in the past few years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Youth Tobacco Survey, only 4.7 percent of teens tried e-cigs in 2011, while 10 percent tried the device in 2012, reports the Los Angeles Times. As a result, anti-smoking advocates say that the growing trend of "vaping" among teens may be a problem, especially if it is leading them to try traditional cigarettes.

The new study may support the theory that teens are attracted to e-cigarettes because of their curiosity and because they see them as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. Subsequently, they become "vulnerable to cigarette smoking," the researchers wrote.

However, the data are also consistent with the theory that teens who use e-cigs are inclined to engage in other risky behavior, such as trying regular cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol because "they provide a means of rebelling against conventional values" along with "pleasant physical sensations," the study states. Hence, e-cigarette use may just be one step on a path to "problem behavior" that certain students were likely to follow anyway.

The study authors conclude that the data does not determine "whether low-risk youth are being recruited to cigarette smoking by being exposed to e-cigarettes and acquiring perceptions and attitudes favorable to smoking." Therefore, the idea that e-cigarettes are a gateway drug "must be considered in the ongoing debate," they wrote.

Meanwhile, another CDC study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, shows that the number of middle and high school students who used e-cigarettes nearly tripled from 79,000 in 2011 to over 250,000 in 2013.

"43.9 percent said they have intentions to smoke conventional cigarettes within the next year, compared with 21.5 percent of those who had never used e-cigarettes," the study says according to The New York Times.

Although some public health experts have argued that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking, others say e-cigarettes are encouraging a new generation of conventional cigarette smokers.

"There's no question that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking," Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco and distinguished tobacco researcher said according to USA Today. "When you put this new research in the context of other studies and ask the question, 'Are e-cigs leading to nicotine addiction among kids and promoting smoking around kids?', I think we've got enough information to answer, 'yes.' We don't have the longitudinal data to say that absolutely, positively, e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking, but we have walked up to the door and opened it."

On the other hand, David B. Abrams, executive director of the anti-smoking research group Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Legacy, disagrees.

"I don't think you can say that this study supports the gateway theory; it's still an open question," he said, adding that the focus on e-cigs distracts from bigger health problems. "Public enemy number one is still regular cigarettes, along with cigars, cigarillos and hookahs."

Teenagers are reportedly using the latter group at a higher rate than e-cigarettes.

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