Posts

USA Today – Our View: E-cigarettes cloud progress on teen smoking

USA Today Editorial Board

E-cigarettes, once seen as a harmless alternative to tobacco smoking, are beginning to look more like a new gateway to addiction.

This year, for the first time, more teens used electronic cigarettes than traditional ones: 17% of high school seniors used the devices, vs. 14% who smoked cigarettes. Kids in eighth and 10th grades favored them 2-to-1 over traditional smokes, according to an eye-opening University of Michigan survey released Tuesday.

In one sense, there is good news. Teen smoking hit a record low last year after a steady decline since the late 1990s, leaving fewer teens vulnerable to the risk of cancer, heart disease and emphysema that comes with tobacco use. But e-cigarettes are a troubling alternative.

Just as scientists didn’t grasp the danger of tobacco when the nation was becoming addicted, they don’t fully understand the risks posed by e-cigarettes now.

One is obvious: addiction.

E-cigs, battery-powered nicotine inhalers that produce a vapor cloud, could be every bit as addictive as tobacco. With sales skyrocketing to $754 million, 30 times five-year-ago levels, and tobacco giants Altria and Reynolds entering the business, millions of people are getting hooked.

This is particularly a problem during the teen years because that is when nearly all smokers pick up their habit.

For manufacturers, the logic is inescapable: Addict a teenager and you could have a customer for life; miss the moment and you have no customer at all. So in ways subtle and not so subtle, e-cigarette makers have applied Big Tobacco’s advertising and marketing practices.

One prominent tactic is their use of celebrities — including former Playboy centerfold Jenny McCarthy, singer Courtney Love, actor Stephen Dorff and teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame — to make “vaping” look sexy and rebellious.

No one knows how dangerous this is because with federal oversight missing, no one knows exactly what’s in the devices, some made in China. A Japanese study found hazardous substances in the vapor at higher levels than in cigarette smoke.

There are obvious ways to address the problem, starting with attention from the newly confirmed surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, and analysis by the Food and Drug Administration of e-cigarette content. Both worked with tobacco but could be thwarted by a Congress rigidly opposed to regulation.

Alternatively, states could fill the breach. Nearly a dozen still allow e-cigarette sales to minors when they plainly should not. They could also use the 1998 tobacco settlement negotiated with the industry long before e-cigarettes existed. The accord defines covered products in a way that includes e-cigarettes, because nicotine is derived from tobacco.

By invoking the settlement, state attorneys general would be able to clamp down on marketing that’s targeted at youth, including certain celebrity promotions, concert sponsorships and access to free samples.

After a decades-long battle against youth smoking, it would be tragic to see a new generation of teens hooked on a different but potentially dangerous substitute.

USA TODAY’s editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/16/e-cigarettes-teen-smoking-university-of-michigan-editorials-debates/20485297/

E-cigarettes usually aren’t taxed like regular tobacco products. Utah’s governor wants to change that.

By Hunter Schwarz | The Washington Post

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert wants e-cigarettes to be taxed, and his office thinks it could bring in $10 million for the state annually.

“The governor feels strongly we should tax e-cigarettes the same way as other tobacco products,” said Marty Carpenter, a Herbert spokesman, in an interview with the Washington Post. “We don’t want to be in the business of incentivizing” e-cigarettes, he said.

The tax was included as a footnote in Herbert’s budget proposal released Thursday, and first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune. Herbert tweeted about the tax Monday.

While cigarettes are taxed in every state — from a high of $4.35 in New York to $.17 in Missouri — Utah would be among the first to tax e-cigarettes. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only Minnesota and North Carolina currently tax e-cigarettes, but Carpenter said he “wouldn’t surprise me if other states were to look at something similar.”

For e-cigarettes to be taxed, the legislature would need to create and pass a bill. Carpenter said he doesn’t anticipate much opposition to such the proposed tax.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/12/15/e-cigarettes-usually-arent-taxed-like-regular-tobacco-products-utahs-governor-wants-to-change-that/

KX News: Students Help Draft E-Cigarette Bill

By Steph Scheurer, Reporter

The CDC reports more than 16 million minors live in states where they can buy e-cigarettes legally.

The topic of age limits on e-cigarettes is one that will be brought up during the 2015 legislative session.

Braden Will and Ashti Ali are 7th graders.

But even at a young age, they’re thinking about their safety.

“It’s kind of scary that 12 year olds, even 10 year olds can buy e-cigarettes,” says Braden Will, Simle 7th Grader, SADD.

“We don’t think it’s right that kids our age and younger can buy e-cigarettes because they’re just as harmful as regular cigarettes and so if they start now, then they’ll just get addicted for their whole life and we don’t want that to happen,” says Ashti Ali, Simle 7th Grader, SADD.

So, they decided to do something about it.

“The Simle SADD chapter wrote Representative Larson and said, you know what, we want a bill to protect our youth,” says Kristie Wolff, Program Manager, American Lung Association, ND.

Representative Diane Larson went to Simle, met with the students, and got a bill drafted that would restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to minors across the state of North Dakota.

“Currently several communities across the state have already developed city ordinances that are in place but statewide we do not have an e-cigarette ordinance so it is legal for minors not only to purchase but possess e-cigarettes across much of the state,” says Wolff.

Wolff says e-cigarette use among the youth has tripled since 2011. Currently 40 states prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. North Dakota is not one of them.

“One of the reasons could be because we only have session every other year and so this is one of the first times that our legislators, you know, are going to be addressing it,” says Wolff.

As of September, 18 cities across the state have developed city ordinances that are in place, but Braden, Ashti, and the rest of their SADD chapter hopes their voice will help make this change statewide.

“I like the feeling that we actually kind of get to help with this because it just makes me feel good,” says Ali.

“I think the way the bill came about is amazing because it’s coming directly from those we want to protect,” says Wolff.

E-cigarettes are included in North Dakota’s Smoke Free Law.

Anywhere that traditional tobacco cannot be used, e-cigarettes also cannot be used.

According to a list from the American Lung Association in North Dakota, Dickinson is just one city where e-cigarettes are not restricted from being sold to minors.

http://www.kxnet.com/story/27634626/students-help-draft-e-cigarette-bill

Governor Herbert wants to tax e-cigarette sales in Utah, bring in $10M

By ROBERT GEHRKE | The Salt Lake Tribune

Buried in Gov. Gary Herbert’s budget blueprint is a proposal that is sure to have the users of e-cigarettes fuming.

In a footnote on page 22 of his outline, Herbert is proposing a new tax on e-cigarettes that his office predicts will raise $10 million next year.

Herbert, who boasted his budget is free of tax increases, says he doesn’t consider the new e-cigarette tax to be a tax hike, but rather a change in the way the state treats the products.

“It’s just saying, ‘Here’s a product that should fit under the umbrella of tobacco,’ ” Herbert said in an interview with The Tribune. “It’s a health issue and there are some that think this new e-cigarette that young people are getting hooked on, that’s straight nicotine with good flavors and all that stuff that makes it attractive, should be taxed just like we tax tobacco.”

The governor’s office could not provide specific details of how the new e-cigarette tax would work. There are several options, said Herbert’s spokesman Marty Carpenter, and the governor is willing to work with legislators to find the best one.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, an anti-tobacco crusader in the Legislature, said he has met with the governor and representatives from the “vaping” industry and believes the best option would be to tax the e-cigarette liquid, or e-juice, at a lower rate than regular tobacco products, but that it should still be taxed.

Typically, tobacco products other than cigarettes are taxed at 87.5 percent of the wholesale price in Utah. Ray is proposing a rate of about half that for the e-juice. That would add several dollars to the cost of the average bottle of e-juice he said.

“What we have to look at is a fair tax, because tobacco is being taxed and this is a tobacco derivative,” Ray said. “I’ve approached the industry and said, ‘OK, you’re claiming this is less harmful, so let’s go somewhere in the middle, somewhere around 40 percent.’ “

The e-cigarette vaporizers, that turn the juice into steam to be inhaled, would not be taxed. Ray said he hopes the increase in price would be enough to discourage young people from picking up vaping in the first place.

But Aaron Frazier, executive director of the Utah Smoke-free Association, said that upping the price of e-cigarette liquid will mean people will just keep smoking more harmful cigarettes.

“What that’s going to do is protect the tobacco market and drive the price of the e-liquid above and beyond what the price of tobacco cigarettes are,” Frazier said. “Basically, what they’re doing is removing any benefit for a smoker to move over to a scientifically documented less-harmful product and drive them back to smoking tobacco cigarettes.”

Ray said he believes that, within a few years, science will show the health benefits that supporters of e-cigarettes boast about are fiction.

“I think it’s going to be as bad as tobacco down the road,” he said. “People will realize this stuff is not as good as we were told and we’re going to have health problems down the road.”

Frazier said several states have looked at imposing e-cigarette taxes as a cash cow to make up for the tobacco-tax revenue they’re losing because people are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

According to the group Americans for Tax Reform, which opposes e-cigarette taxes, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, New York, Delaware, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine have all considered legislation looking to tax e-cigarettes, but it has been defeated. In Arizona, an e-cigarette tax is still pending.

Only two states — Minnesota and North Carolina — have an e-cigarette tax in place, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota taxes the liquids at 95 percent of the wholesale price of the liquids. North Carolina imposes a tax of a nickel per milliliter.

Ray also is planning to once again sponsor legislation to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes. Last session, he ran a bill that got worked over with multiple amendments and was up for passage on the final night when the Legislature adjourned without voting on it.

The bill would require businesses that sell e-cigarettes to be licensed by the state and the retailer could lose its license if it sold e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/1941695-155/governor-wants-to-tax-e-cigarette-sales

First Child's Death From Liquid Nicotine Reported as 'Vaping' Gains Popularity

By GILLIAN MOHNEY, ABC News

A toddler from upstate New York could be the first child to die from liquid nicotine, the substance used in e-cigarettes, poisoning in the U.S., concerning health officials as e-cigarettes continue to rise in popularity.

Police reported that the 1-year-old child died after ingesting liquid nicotine at a home in Fort Plain, New York, on Tuesday. The child was found unresponsive and rushed to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Fort Plain police released a statement saying the death is believed to be a “tragic accident.” They declined to say whether the liquid nicotine was associated with an e-cigarette.

But health officials are concerned if steps aren’t taken to protect children, they could see more fatal accidents similar to this one.

The rise of e-cigarettes and “vaping” in recent years has also meant a rise in the purchase of liquid nicotine. Coming in flavors like cotton candy or gummy bear, health officials say that the brightly colored liquid could appeal to young children.

“One teaspoon of liquid nicotine could be lethal to a child, and smaller amounts can cause severe illness, often requiring trips to the emergency department,” the American Association of Poison Control centers in a statement today. “Despite the dangers these products pose to children, there are currently no standards set in place that require child-proof packaging.”

In November the American Association of Poison Control Centers announced that the number of dangerous “exposures” to liquid nicotine has skyrocketed in recent years with 3,638 exposures as of Nov. 30. An exposure means coming into contact with liquid nicotine through ingestion, inhalation or by absorbing the substance through the skin.

The number is more than double the 1,543 exposures reported in 2013 and exponentially higher than in 2011 when 271 exposures were reported.

Before this week, the only confirmed death related to liquid nicotine happened in 2012 when a man injected himself with the substance, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

Dr. Donna Seger, director of the poison control center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said her center has started to get more calls about exposure to e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine.

“They’re not that difficult to get into,” Seger said of the vials that contain the nicotine. “The issue is once the exposure occurs, it could be bad.”

Seger said just a small amount of nicotine can cause dangerous symptoms in children, including seizures.

Phil Daman, president of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, said he was “saddened to hear the terrible news.”

“[We] want to always be mindful to put safe products on the market,” said Daman, who said the trade association recommends childproofing products to “err on the side of caution.”

Daman questioned if the child could have gotten a hold of a high-grade liquid nicotine that could be a much higher concentration than what is in many common e-cigarette products. Because e-cigarettes are not federally regulated there is a wide-range of liquid that could be purchased to use in e-cigarette products, ranging from potent high grade liquid nicotine to material that has an extremely small amount of nicotine.

In April the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention warned they were seeing an increase of calls to poison control centers for liquid nicotine exposure and children were becoming sick after ingesting, inhaling or absorbing the chemical through their skin. The most common symptoms were vomiting, nausea or eye irritation.

“Use of these products is skyrocketing and these poisonings will continue,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in April. “E-cigarette liquids as currently sold are a threat to small children because they are not required to be childproof, and they come in candy and fruit flavors that are appealing to children.”

To combat these cases of increased exposure some state lawmakers have introduced bills that would require e-cigarette companies to put child-resistant caps on bottles of liquid nicotine.

In New York State, a bill passed earlier in the year that would require child resistant containers for liquid nicotine. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to sign the bill in the next few weeks, according to ABC News affiliate WABC-TV.

At least one e-cigarette, Vapor World, changed their packaging this year so that bottles of liquid nicotine are more child resistant.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/childs-death-liquid-nicotine-reported-vaping-gains-popularity/story?id=27563788

Don't fall for tobacco industry e-cigarette smokescreen

By Michaeline Fedder, Deborah P. Brown and Bonita Pennino
No one should have to choose between their health and a paycheck. Which is why, with all that is still unknown about the dangers of e-cigarette use, we must put public health first and prohibit the use of these unregulated products in all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and casinos. Unfortunately a bill recently passed by the Baltimore City Council purporting to ban e-cigarette use in the city allows restaurants, taverns and casinos to opt out, which not only weakens Baltimore and Maryland’s longstanding and popular smoke-free laws, it threatens the health of many city workers. We urge Mayor Rawlings-Blake to see through the tobacco industry smokescreen and use her power to veto this ordinance.
Turning the clock back by allowing the use of e-cigarettes in public places could create a host of new problems — encouraging new tobacco users, reversing efforts that have made smoking socially unacceptable, creating enforcement confusion for business owners and the public, and potentially putting the health of Baltimore’s restaurant, bar and casino workers and patrons at risk.
While e-cigarette manufacturers may make unverified claims that the ingredients are just “water vapor” or “safe,” without further research and federal regulation there is no sure way for e-cigarette users to know what they are consuming. Nor is there any way of knowing what nonusers are exposed to and the extent of the risk to their health. There are hundreds of types of e-cigarettes on the market today, and the products vary considerably by ingredients and quality control and assurance. Prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces, restaurants and bars can protect the public health by preventing nonusers from being exposed to the potentially harmful chemicals in these products.
An increasing number of studies have examined the contents of e-cigarette aerosol. Unlike a vapor, an aerosol contains fine particles of liquid, solid or both. Propylene glycol, nicotine and flavorings were most commonly found in e-cigarette aerosol. Other studies have found the aerosol to contain heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, among other potentially harmful chemicals. A 2009 study done by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found cancer-causing substances in several of the e-cigarette samples tested. FDA tests also found nicotine in some e-cigarettes that claimed to contain no nicotine.
The public should know more about e-cigarettes before allowing users to expose others to potential dangers. Studies have already shown that the use of e-cigarettes can cause short-term lung changes and irritations, while the long-term health effects are unknown.Both exposure to and health effects of secondhand aerosol from e-cigarettes require further research, but preliminary studies indicate nonusers can be exposed to the same potentially harmful chemicals as users, including nicotine, ultrafine particles and volatile organic compounds. This exposure could be especially problematic for vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women and people with heart disease. No worker or patron should be subject to inhaling the unknown aerosol emitted from electronic smoking devices.
By passing this reckless measure allowing the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces, Baltimore City Council members have fallen for the tobacco industry’s tricks. We are all too familiar with the age-old tactics of the tobacco industry such as designating smoking areas and notifying the public when smoking is allowed. We learned the hard way that these strategies do nothing to protect the health of workers and patrons from the dangers of secondhand smoke. These tactics are nothing but a ruse to promote smoking in public places, thus continuing addiction to a deadly product and guaranteeing sales of cigarettes well into the future. We should not repeat the same mistake now in Baltimore with e-cigarettes. No one, regardless in which section of a restaurant, tavern or casino they are working, dining or gaming, should have to choose between their health and a good job or a good time.
It is well understood that smoke-free laws are popular in Maryland and should not be weakened. And laws prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in public places are steadily on the rise — with 156 municipalities and counting already prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and gaming facilities. Everyone has the right to breathe safe smoke-free and aerosol-free air in their place of work or leisure, and Mayor Rawlings-Blake should protect that right by vetoing this ordinance.
Michaeline Fedder is director of government relations in Maryland for the American Heart Association; Deborah P. Brown is president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic; Bonita Pennino is the Maryland government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Our View: Do more to keep e-cigs, youths apart

The Times Editorial Board, SC Times

Surveys of Minnesota and U.S. youth show alarming increase in e-cigarette use. Lawmakers can slow this increase by immediately acting to limit access.

Two surveys released the past week — one state and one national — deliver a powerful message about the most pressing issue regarding e-cigarettes:
Government needs to lead a stronger charge to keep them out of the hands — and bodies — of minors.
To this point, most of the e-cigarette debate has been about whether e-cigarettes — which electronically convert liquid nicotine into vapor to be inhaled — are as harmful as traditional tobacco and secondhand smoke.
That debate has raged for years, even decades. A resolution seems months, or more likely, years away.
What’s more pressing to resolve — as evidenced by two surveys of youths’ nicotine use — is slowing the fast-rising number of minors who are trying these devices.
How fast?
The 2014 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey released Monday found 28 percent of high school students have tried e-cigarettes. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 4.5 percent of high school students nationally used e-cigarettes regularly in 2013 — triple the percent from 2011. Equally disturbing: 12 percent of U.S. high school students and 3 percent of middle-schoolers had tried them at least once.
And remember, e-cigarettes have been widely available in America for only about seven years.
Such findings make it clear e-cigarettes hold potential for creating countless new generations with unhealthy and high rates of nicotine addiction.
Hasn’t America learned enough hard lessons from 50 years of tobacco-based nicotine addiction to know it needs to snuff out that potential now instead of waiting for more research?
Ultimately, there is no debate that nicotine is a potent, addictive drug. E-cigarettes are simply a delivery mechanism.
So lawmakers should act now to keep the drug and the delivery system out of the hands of minors.
An easy decision is to enact a federal ban on selling minors e-cigarettes, “e-juice” and related products. Minnesota is one of about 35 states with such bans. However, sales via the Internet still provide youth access.
Another important step is to apply the same rules to the marketing of e-cigarettes that are applied to traditional tobacco.
After all, even a cursory glance at products and advertising makes it clear many producers are targeting youth. Think everything from trendy-looking e-cigarettes (and accessories) to bubble-gum flavored e-juice.
Finally, there is merit in increasing the taxes paid on all e-cigarette products.
Such an approach proved successful in reducing youth use of traditional tobacco. And it might even dissuade adults from nicotine addiction.
Again, too much of the debate about whether and how to regulate e-cigarettes remains focused on comparisons to traditional tobacco.
Seeing how e-cigarettes are gaining traction among youth, the focus needs to shift to keeping these nicotine-delivery devices out of their hands — at least until they are legal adults.
http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2014/11/16/view-keep-e-cigs-youths-apart/19089759/

CDC: E-Cigarette Use Rising in High School Kids

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer
Use of electronic cigarettes by high school students tripled over three years, according to a new government report released Thursday.
In a large national survey last year, 4.5 percent of high school students said they had used e-cigarettes in the previous month. That’s up from 1.5 percent in 2011 and 2.8 percent in 2012.
It’s not known, though, how many were repeatedly using e-cigarettes and how many only tried it once during that month and didn’t do it again.
E-cigarettes began to appear in the United States in late 2006, but marketing has exploded in recent years. The devices heat liquid nicotine into a vapor. They are often described as a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes, but experts say nicotine — including the nicotine in e-cigarettes — is especially harmful to children.
Dozens of states outlaw the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, and federal officials have proposed a nationwide ban on such sales.
The report’s e-cigarette findings are disheartening, said Dr. Patrick T. O’Gara, president of the American College of Cardiology. Smoking rates has slowly been declining over the last several decades, but “we risk going backwards if a new generation of smokers becomes addicted to nicotine,” O’Gara said, in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report comes from a survey of more than 18,000 high school and middle school students.
The CDC survey also found 13 percent of high school students recently smoked regular cigarettes, and that about 23 percent used some form of tobacco product — be it cigarettes, e-cigarettes, flavored cigars, hookahs or something else.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/cdc-cigarette-rising-high-school-kids-26893757

New CDC Youth Tobacco Survey Should Spur FDA to Finalize Rule Regulating All Tobacco Products, Including E-Cigarettes and Cigars

New CDC Youth Tobacco Survey Should Spur FDA to Finalize Rule Regulating All Tobacco Products, Including E-Cigarettes and Cigars

Teen E-Cigarette Use Triples, Cigar Use Stays Steady Even While Cigarette Smoking Continues to Drop 

WASHINGTON, DC – The 2013 National Youth Tobacco Survey released today by the CDC shows that while youth cigarette smoking continues to decline, electronic cigarette use among high school students tripled from 2011 to 2013 and there has been no progress in reducing youth cigar smoking.

These findings underscore the urgent need for the Food and Drug Administration to finalize its proposed rule to regulate all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and cigars, in order to prevent youth use of these products.  We again call on the FDA to issue a final rule by April 25, 2015 – one year after the FDA issued a proposed rule – and to close gaps in the rule by cracking down on marketing and flavors that appeal to kids.  The FDA first announced in early 2011 that it planned to regulate e-cigarettes, cigars and other unregulated tobacco products, so these important public health protections are long overdue.  We cannot afford more delays that allow the tobacco industry to continue targeting our kids with a new generation of unregulated tobacco products.

The FDA currently regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco under a landmark 2009 law, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.  But the FDA must assert jurisdiction over other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and cigars, before it can regulate them, which is what the proposed rule would do.

Key findings of the new survey include:

·        Youth cigarette smoking continues a steady, long-term decline, again reaching a record low.  In 2013, the cigarette smoking rate among high school students was 12.7 percent, down from 14 percent in 2012 and 15.8 percent in 2011 (the CDC last year published results of the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Surveys). Since 2000, cigarette smoking among high school students has been cut by more than half (from 28 to 12.7 percent), while middle school smoking has fallen by 74 percent (from 11 to 2.9 percent).

·        In 2013, 4.5 percent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. That is triple the 1.5 percent who reported doing so in 2011 and up from 2.8 percent in 2012. This increase comes as e-cigarette makers have marketed their products with the same tactics long used to market regular cigarettes to kids, including celebrity endorsements, slick TV and magazine ads, sponsorships of race cars and concerts, and sweet flavors such as gummi bear and cotton candy.

·        There has been no progress in reducing youth cigar smoking in recent years.  In 2013, 11.9 percent of high school students were cigar smokers, compared to 11.6 percent in 2011.  In 2013, high school boys smoked cigars at higher rates than cigarettes – 15.4 percent vs. 14.1 percent, while African-American high school students smoked cigars at much higher rates than cigarettes – 14.7 percent vs. 9 percent.  Because cigars are unregulated, often taxed at lower rates than cigarettes and can be sold individually, tobacco companies have been able to market an array of cheap, sweet cigars that appeal to kids.

As the CDC noted in its report on the survey results, nicotine use by youths in any form is unsafe and can harm adolescent brain development.  It is critical that the FDA act to regulate all tobacco products and prevent youth use of any tobacco product.

The big drops in cigarette smoking demonstrate that we know how to win the fight against tobacco by implementing scientifically proven strategies. These include higher tobacco taxes, strong smoke-free laws, well-funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs that include mass media campaigns, and effective FDA regulation of all tobacco products.

Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death in our country, killing 480,000 people and costing at least $289 billion in health care bills and economic losses each year.  It is within our reach to win this fight and make the next generation tobacco-free, but only if we have the political will to fully implement what we know works.

The National Youth Tobacco Survey results were published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

NOTE: In addition to the increase in youth use of e-cigarettes, poison control centers across the country continue to report soaring numbers of accidental poisonings related to e-cigarettes and the  nicotine liquids used in them.  The American Association of Poison Control Centers reports that, through October 31, there have been 3,353 calls so far this year involving exposures to e-cigarette devices and nicotine liquids.  This is more than double the 1,543 calls in all of 2013 and more than 12 times the 271 calls in 2011. The huge increase in poisoning incidents related to e-cigarettes is one more reason why the FDA must quickly finalize its rule, including requiring child-resistant packaging of nicotine liquids.

Fewer high school students smoking

Posted by: Colleen Stoxen
In the steepest decline ever found in Minnesota, the percent of high school students who smoked cigarettes in the past 30 days dropped from 18.1 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2014.
The 2014 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey also found fewer young people used used chewing tobacco and cigars between 2011 and 2014.
Efforts to curb cigarette smoking appear to be helping. They include a 2013 tobacco tax, bans on indoor smoking, and tighter restrictions on youth access to tobacco products.
For the first time, the survey also asked about e-cigarette use and found that 12.9 percent of high school students used or tried an electronic cigarette in the past 30 days. The survey found that 28 percent of high school students reported ever having tried an e-cigarette.
“These new findings indicate that our statewide efforts to reduce and prevent conventional tobacco use among Minnesota children are working,” said Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger. “At the same time, we are seeing a wild-west approach toward e-cigarettes, which allows tobacco companies unlimited marketing access to young men and women. This has led to increasing numbers of Minnesota high school and middle school students using e-cigarettes.”
An estimated 85,900 Minnesota public school students in grades 6-12 have tried e-cigarettes, and 38,400 reported using them in the past 30 days. Nicotine is known to harm adolescent brain development. Nearly one-fourth of high school students who have tried an e-cigarette have never tried another tobacco product.
Read more from the Minnesota Department of Health.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/blogs/282152861.html