Number of Youth Who Start Vaping at 14 Yrs Before Has Tripled: Study

Vaping crisis tightens its grip on America's kids as several numbers of US teens who have tried e-cigarettes by age 14 have tripled in five years, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Last year, 28% of e-cigarette users said they started no later than age 14, compared to about 9% in 2014.

‘Perception that e-cigarettes aren't as harmful or addictive as smoking cigarettes could be partly to blame for the rise in e-cigarette use among youths.’

While the researchers did not look specifically at what caused the increase, study author Rebecca Evans-Polce, an assistant research scientist at the U-M School of Nursing, said the perception that e-cigarettes aren't as harmful or addictive as smoking cigarettes could be partly to blame.

This is alarming because research shows that early e-cigarette use is linked to later risk for cigarette smoking, she said. Also, nicotine exposure while the brain is developing may confer particular risk, and vaping has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses.

The big increase in kids who vape at younger ages makes sense, even while other products--cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco--remained significantly unchanged during that time period, Evans-Polce said.

"I'm not sure you would expect big changes in such a short period for those other products," she said. "On the other hand, the use of e-cigarettes has skyrocketed in the past five years. Also, it's important to note that for cigarettes, especially, kids are still using early. Over half of kids who reported ever using cigarettes by age 16 or 17 reported starting by age 14."

Evans-Polce and her colleagues used data from 26,662 participants, ages 16 and 17, from the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Source: Eurekalert