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Teen use of flavoured e-cigarettes still rising, survey shows

Accra, Oct. 4, (GNA/UPI) – Coming on the
heels of recent U.S. federal and state efforts to ban flavoured e-cigarettes, a
new report finds the percentage of American teenagers who’ve used these
products continues to climb.

According to 2018 data, nearly 2.4 million
middle and high school teens say they have used a flavoured e-cigarette at
least once over the past 30 days.

Among teens, “e-cigarettes were the
most commonly used flavoured tobacco product in 2018; flavoured e-cigarette use
has increased in recent years,” according to researchers led by Karen
Cullen. She’s from the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.

In fact, almost two-thirds (about 65
percent) of the nearly 5 million teenagers who used some form of tobacco
product in 2018 said they had used a flavoured e-cigarette over the past month.
The figures come from annual National Youth Tobacco Surveys.

Experts in lung health said the numbers are
troubling, because any nicotine-containing product that comes in fruit, candy
or other flavours can be a gateway to lifelong addiction.

“In order to make vaping more enticing,
flavours have been introduced into the manufacturing of both commercial brands
and black market products,” said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist
at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

“Young people are attracted to the
flavourings, but as they get older, they add other substances like nicotine and
THC,” he added. THC is the chemical in marijuana that provides a high.

And there’s an even more frightening issue
emerging — cases of serious lung injury linked to vaping. According to the
latest figures, more than 1,000 such cases have occurred this year across the
United States, including up to 18 deaths.

The exact cause of the illness is unclear,
but diacetyl, often used in flavoured vapes, has been “implicated now in
the pulmonary syndromes,” Horovitz noted.

Responding to the epidemic of youth vaping
and the recent spate of vaping-linked lung injury, federal and state
governments are moving to ban flavoured e-cigarettes.

On the national level, the situation has
spurred the Trump administration to call for a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes.

And on Tuesday, Los Angeles County banned
flavoured forms of e-cigarettes — echoing a move made recently by Michigan and
the state of New York. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called for similar legislation in
his state on Tuesday, and last week retail giant Walmart announced that it
would pull all e-cigarette products from its shelves.

Cullen and her colleagues believe such
efforts can help. They point out that after New York City initiated an almost
total ban on the sale of many flavoured cigars and “chew” products in
2009, cigar sales dropped by 12 percent, even as sales rose elsewhere in the
nation.

Another lung health specialist agreed that
something must be done to spare kids a lifetime of addiction to nicotine.

“Many youth admit that flavoured
e-cigarettes are the major reason they started vaping,” said Dr. Mina
Makaryus, a pulmonary specialist at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
“Given the addictive nature of nicotine, these youth are now addicted to
nicotine at a very young age, and they are more likely to continue using
e-cigarettes and even start smoking regular combustion cigarettes in the
future,” he said.

Makaryus hopes that “more states will
start to ban flavoured e-cigarettes. There also needs to be increased FDA
regulation of e-cigarettes, including their marketing and targeting of underage
youth.”

The new study is published in the Oct. 4
issue of Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.

GNA

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