Teens are still choosing to pass on cigarettes and cigars, the traditional tobacco of choice for past generations. When it comes to e-cigarettes and other vaping devices, however, an ever increasing number of teens are choosing to indulge.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey, the result of surveying some 20,000 middle and high school students across the country from 2011 to 2015, found that the number of high school students who had used an e-cigarette at least once in the past month, had risen from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015. Among children in middle school, usage rose from 0.6 percent to 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, cigarette smoking has declined dramatically, dropping from 15.8 percent to 9.3 percent among students in high school and 4.3 percent to 2.3 percent among middle school students. The continued decline of cigarette and cigar smoking, and increase of e-cigarette use is in line with previously observed trends.
There is a slight silver lining to the report. Electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices have been found to be 95 percent less harmful than traditionally burned tobacco. In the United Kingdom the National Health Service has actually started to prescribe E-cigarettes as an alternative to smokers who are trying to quit.
E-cigarettes, or Vapes as they are increasingly known, do not rely on turning tobacco into smoke, and in fact, often don’t contain any tobacco at all. Instead, small amounts of flavored liquid mix, is heated, and expanded into a misty steam. The smoker (vaper) then inhales this gas.
An increasing number of studies point to E-Cigarettes being a potential health benefit for those who cannot quit nicotine completely. WHO claims that vaping does not help people quit smoking but this writer has to wholeheartedly disagree. I have been smoke free for a year and cigarettes disgust me. I vape every day.
