They were originally marketed as a means to help people quit smoking. Electronic cigarettes, however, appear to be having quite the opposite effect on the most vulnerable of users.

“We’re concerned that kids who experiment with e-cigarettes may be moving on to other types of tobacco products,” said one researcher.

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A new study shows older teens experimenting with e-cigs are six times more likely to try regular cigarettes within two years than those who have never puffed on the devices, Reuters reported.

“We’re concerned that kids who experiment with e-cigarettes may be moving on to other types of tobacco products, like combustible cigarettes, which are arguably a lot more dangerous,” said University of Southern California researcher Jessica Barrington-Trimis, lead author of the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

E-cigarettes are battery-operated and heat a liquid from a refillable cartridge. The device allows users to inhale an aerosol (vapor) containing nicotine or other substances.

In 2014, researchers from USC surveyed about 300 high school students. At the time, about half said they had at least tried an e-cigarette.

A follow-up survey in 2015 found that close to 40 percent of those who had tried an e-cigarette the previous year had tried regular cigarettes. The difference was stark: Only 11 percent of those who had not tried an e-cigarette in 2014 made an attempt to smoke that following year.

Teens who said in the first survey that they had no intention to smoke had a risk of smoking that was 10 times greater than those who never vaped.

Barrington-Trimis said the high risk among teens committed to not smoking “suggests this is not just occurring among kids who intended to smoke anyway.”

Overall, 16 percent of teens report using e-cigarettes — it’s the most common way high school students now ingest tobacco.

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The concern is nothing new. The Food and Drug Administration this past month announced sweeping new changes to e-cig regulations. Sales are now banned to anyone under 18.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and a proponent of e-cigarettes as a way to wean smokers off conventional cigarettes, told Reuters the study did not prove e-cigarette use had prompted the teens to take up regular cigarettes. Siegel said the first survey did not determine how many times the teens had vaped, asking only if they had used e-cigarettes at least once.

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that while tobacco use among high school children has remained stable over the past five years — one in four are current users — and cigarette use dropped from 15 percent in 2011 to 9 percent in 2015, a growing number of teens are using e-cigarettes.

Overall, 16 percent of teens report using e-cigarettes — it’s the most common way high school students now use tobacco. More than three million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigs in 2015, the CDC reports.

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“The use of e-cigarettes by young people continues to increase at a concerning rate,” Dr. Michael Fiore, a nationwide expert on smoking cessation and founder of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, told LifeZette.

Information from the CDC released just a week ago, he said, indicated that 24 percent of high school students interviewed reported vaping over the last month.

The new study in Pediatrics adds additional information, suggesting that those who use these cigarettes are at a much higher risk of going on to use deadly combustible tobacco.

“I think everyone is concerned about youth using nicotine. The reason for that is — the substantial evidence that we have that the adolescent brain exposed to nicotine can be changed in fundamental ways that puts that adolescent at risk for lifelong nicotine dependence,” said Fiore. “Apart from any controversies that exist around e-cigs, the one thing that is not controversial is this: We should not expose our young people during their vulnerable adolescent years to any forms of nicotine or tobacco.”