E-Cigarettes have evoked strong reactions among health experts. While debates are raging about the safety profile of the e-cigarettes another debate is also raging about the easy availability among the young people in the United States.
This has become very important because the use of e-cigarettes have grown in the US particularly among the young and there are growing concerns about one more dangerous substance being used by the youth. The problem has been further confounded by the accessibility and the misinformation regarding electronic cigarettes.
Latest studies conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that e cigarettes has spawned a completely new generation of smoking addicts who are sure to end up getting addicted to conventional cigarettes.
The study has smashed the usual logic put forth by the advocates of e-cigarettes, that it will divert teens away from traditional cigarettes. It could be true in the beginning but eventually they get hooked to traditional cigarettes.
Tom Frieden, the director for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “It’s a really bad thing, and it is subjecting another generation of our children to an addictive substance.”
Freiden further added any exposure to nicotine, no matter how trivial can damage the teenage brain. E-cigarette smokers will inevitably get hooked to traditional cigarettes in the end.
Freiden goes on to explain, “Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.”
The report also revealed that the use of the device has tripled among high school students in between 2013 and 2014.Among the two million teens who have been surveyed, the survey found 50% of them to have taken e-cigarettes. This has even surpassed the use of cigarettes and other tobacco products as well.
Added flavors like cherry and bubblegum often mar the dangers associated with e-cigarettes and make them seem safe and simple as popping in a bubblegum.
Presently the e-cigarette is an unregulated and unstudied product. As of now, FDA regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco only.
The first thing to note about this article on the CDC survey data is that it failed to report the whole truth. While the rate of vapor product use went up among the teens, the rate of smoking the much more dangerous traditional cigarettes dropped to an historic low (9.2%). Why was that particular fact left out of this article?
Quote: [Freiden further added any exposure to nicotine, no matter how trivial can damage the teenage brain. E-cigarette smokers will inevitably get hooked to traditional cigarettes in the end.]
And how was that conclusion reached? The data in the study itself shows a correlation between a rapid drop in combustible cigarette use by teens and an uptick in vapor product use. Only an increase in both would show any type of correlation to which that conclusion could be postulated (and even then, not confirmed).
Quote: [Freiden goes on to explain, “Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.”]
Except that nicotine, absent all the MAIOs and other reinforcing chemicals in tobacco smoke, is no more addictive than caffeine. The addictive powers of nicotine alone were studies when pharma NRTs hit the market decades ago, and were approved by the FDA. Vapor products use the exact same sources of nicotine that’s used in the NRT products, which by the way are have been recently cleared for long term use by the FDA.
What it comes down to is this: Teens are getting the message that experimenting with combustible cigarettes is a bad idea (the one thing the anti-smoking people actually helped with the education campaigns). Now, they’re looking at the alternatives with a critical mindset and deciding that vapor products (which studies have shown to be at least 95% safer) are a better way to go. Other studies have shown that a large percentage of teens using vapor products choose the zero nicotine option because they want to avoid any chemical dependency problems.
Teens will experiment, either out of curiosity or rebellion, and for those that do, at least they’re getting smarter about it.