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E-Cigs Growing In Popularity Among Youth

en.wikipedia.org

Youth tobacco use has been trending downward, but a recent poll by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention found a sharp uptick in the use of e-cigarettes.

The CDC’s survey also shows that e-cigarette use by high school students rose from 4 percent in 2013 to 13 percent in 2014—an increase of around 1.3 million more  users in just one year. The study also found  use increased substantially for middle school students.

Corie Zelazoski from the Oneida County Health Department says this development has health officials concerned...

"....our coalition has concerns about e-cigarettes due to e-cigarettes produce and aerosol that may contain harmful components like nicotine, heavy metals and formaldehyde and also they remain unregulated...."

She says underage youth aren't allowed to buy the 'juice'...

"...they can't purchase the e-juices that contain nicotine, however there are some e-juices that claim to not to have any nicotine but because there's no regulations, there's no standards or practices letting us know what's in the e-juices..."

Zelazoski says  heavy  advertising as well as fruit and candy flavors may be contributing to the higher youth e-cigarette usage rates. Under federal regulations, conventional cigarettes cannot be advertised on TV or radio and cannot include flavors with the exception of menthol.

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