E-cigarette use among young people has been a growing concern in Northeast Ohio. Today (Thursday), a survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that use is growing quickly nationwide. Ideastream’s Annie Wu reports.
E-cigarettes can look like regular cigarettes but rather than “smoking” tobacco, you’re inhaling warmed up liquid nicotine. And typically, they contain a flavoring – mint, fruit or chocolate. According to the latest National Youth Tobacco Survey, the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes tripled in one year. The survey conducted in 2014 marks the first time in a generation that tobacco use has increased among young people. And while their brains are still developing, nicotine could have adverse effects, according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. He warns that tobacco companies are marketing e-cigarettes in ways that tend to appeal to kids.
FRIEDEN: Marketing is about sex, free samples, flavors, aggressive marketing, promotion and distribution. It’s straight out of the playbook of what was done for cigarettes in the 1950s.
For now, little is known about the health risks of e-cigarettes, and they’re mostly unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In Ohio, minors under 18 can’t buy e-cigarettes, and smoking them in public is banned in the city of Cleveland. Annie Wu 90.3
