CHICAGO,IL-The growing use of e-cigarettes by American teens “has the potential to create a whole new generation of kids who are addicted to nicotine,” the U.S. surgeon general warned Dec 8. In a new report in which he cast “vaping” as an emerging public health threat for young people, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said more research is needed into the effects of e-cigarettes but added that they aren’t harmless and...
too many teens are using them. Federal figures made public Dec 8 show that last year 16 percent of high school students reported at least some use of e-cigarettes, even some who said they’ve never smoked a conventional cigarette.
The statistics on “vaping” mark a threefold increase among the age group since 2013, and e-cigarette use is higher among high school students than adults, according to the report.
While not all contain nicotine, Murthy’s report says e-cigarettes can include harmful ingredients like diacetyl, a chemical flavorant linked to serious lung disease, or heavy metals, including lead.
If e-cigarettes drive users to other tobacco products, “then we are going to be moving backward instead of forward,” Murthy said.
Battery-powered e-cigarettes turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor without the harmful tar generated by regular cigarettes. Vaping was first pushed as safer for current smokers. There’s no scientific consensus on the risks or advantages of vaping, including how it affects the likelihood of someone either picking up regular tobacco products or kicking the habit. For decades, public health officials have crusaded against smoking and in recent years have made major strides, bringing cigarette smoking among high school students to the lowest levels since the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey began in 1991, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule to regulate e-cigarettes and prohibited their sale to minors, though Illinois and other states already had such bans in place.
The statistics on “vaping” mark a threefold increase among the age group since 2013, and e-cigarette use is higher among high school students than adults, according to the report.
While not all contain nicotine, Murthy’s report says e-cigarettes can include harmful ingredients like diacetyl, a chemical flavorant linked to serious lung disease, or heavy metals, including lead.
If e-cigarettes drive users to other tobacco products, “then we are going to be moving backward instead of forward,” Murthy said.
Battery-powered e-cigarettes turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor without the harmful tar generated by regular cigarettes. Vaping was first pushed as safer for current smokers. There’s no scientific consensus on the risks or advantages of vaping, including how it affects the likelihood of someone either picking up regular tobacco products or kicking the habit. For decades, public health officials have crusaded against smoking and in recent years have made major strides, bringing cigarette smoking among high school students to the lowest levels since the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey began in 1991, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule to regulate e-cigarettes and prohibited their sale to minors, though Illinois and other states already had such bans in place.
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