Under the federal government’s 2010 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, retailers may “only sell cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, and smokeless tobacco to anyone age 18 or older”, and must follow any state or local laws.
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Laws that cover secondhand smoke must also be extended to e-cigarettes.
“Most adolescents don’t use just one nicotine product but will commonly use or experiment with several”, said Dr. Harold Farber, lead author of two of the statements and a pediatric pulmonologist at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Wilson, a practicing pediatrician in Colorado, told LifeZette that e-cigs are threatening to get a new generation addicted to nicotine.
The AAP released its list of recommendations through its National Conference & Exhibition on October 26, and also through the journal Pediatrics. In a statement, Dr. Jack Jacoub, director of thoracic oncology at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center’s MemorialCare Cancer Institute in Fountain Valley, Calif, said “The jury on e-cigarettes remains out, but it is clear that carcinogens and potentially harmful substances are nonetheless present in this alternate nicotine delivery system”.
The study, conducted by Imperial Tobacco, owner of the e-cigarette brand “blu”, tested a commercially available heated tobacco product called iQOS to assess whether the product generated side stream chemical emissions when activated. In fact, e-cigarette use among teens is associated with a higher likelihood of using regular tobacco and lower rates of smoking cessation.
In addition, the AAP raises doubts about the effectiveness and safety of e-cigarettes as quitting tools.
“Some of the concentrations of the e-cigarette liquid can kill a child with as little as one teaspoon, which is a very tiny amount, and because they have all these flavors, they can be really appealing to a child that walks up to an open container”, she said. Every child needs an environment that promotes health, and their ZIP code should not determine whether or not she can purchase tobacco as a teenager. There is no safe level of tobacco or tobacco smoke exposure.
In a comprehensive set of policies announced on Monday, the AAP has stressed the need to protect youngsters from ill-effects of tobacco and nicotine.
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It has been more than 50 years since the U.S. Surgeon General’s first report on the health consequences of smoking, and tobacco products are still finding their way into the hands of children and adolescents across the country in increasingly diverse ways.
