“E-cigarettes went from being rare in 2010 to being the most common tobacco product used by our nation’s youth”, said surgeon general Vivek Murthy on Thursday.
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The report notes that vaping, which was banned on all USA commercial flights earlier this year, “is strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products among youth and young adults, particularly the use of combustible tobacco products”.
Unlike other tobacco products that have been proved to cause potentially lethal health problems, “scientists are still working to understand more fully the health effects and harmful doses of e-cigarette contents when they are heated and turned into an aerosol”, the report says.
Nicopure Labs LLC, a manufacturer of premium American-made e-liquids, said the Surgeon General’s report fails to mention the potential tobacco harm reduction benefits of e-cigarettes in adult smokers.
The report is the first comprehensive federal agency review of the impact of e-cigarettes on youth and young adults, and is the result of two years of research from the Department of Health and Human Services. “That’s the kind of careful thought we want not just with electronic cigarettes, but any toxic substance people will be tempted to ingest”.
Nicotine is a highly-addictive drug, and a Thursday report warns it may harm the developing adolescent brain.
“There is no safe use of tobacco-related products when it comes to our kids, and that includes e-cigarettes”.
“Many e-cigarette companies are using advertising and strategies employed by the traditional cigarette industry, including the use of flavorings, celebrity endorsements, themes such as rebellion and sex, and sponsorship of sports and music events”, Murthy said.
“There’s no substituting putting smoke in your lungs, it’s still a negative thing”, Colin McCampbell, who now smokes regular cigarettes but wants to quit, said. But, as is the case with cigarettes, that hasn’t stopped underage teens from getting their hands on them. “What I tell my patients is that there’s really not a lot of long-term research out there yet saying how harmful are they, how helpful are they”, he said. “In fact, 81 percent of kids when asked why they use e-cigarettes cite flavors”. Between 2011 and 2015 the use of combustible cigarettes among US middle school students fell to 2.3 percent from 4.3 percent.
“Currently, 58 middle schools across ten states (including Texas) are implementing the CATCH My Breath program”. Through a grant from the St. David’s Foundation, the “CATCH My Breath” is offered free of charge for five counties in central Texas: Travis, Bastrop, Williamson, Hays and Caldwell counties.
“We hope to be catching on”, Grayless said.
For school districts outside of those five counties, the new program costs $25 per year, per school.
Adding e-cigarettes to all policies and programs related to tobacco cigarettes. Many e-cigarette manufacturers already had self-imposed ban to youth sales in place before the deeming rule when into effect on August 8.
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“The responsibility to make sure kids are using vapor products or smoking cigarettes is ultimately up to the parents”.
