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E-cigarettes are easily within reach for millions of minors in the US as indicated by a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disclosing that 10 states and the District of Columbia permit underage Americans to buy e-cigarettes. Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Massachusetts are the states that the CDC points fingers at.
Sadly, for the time being, the legislation addressing e-cigarette selling is incomplete and substantially less harsh than that concerning the use of tobacco items. CDC says that about 16 million minors can get e-cigarettes and comparable electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Furthermore, while 26 states and the District of Columbia have expansive smoke-free regulations that restrict smoking in restaurants, worksites, and bars, just three of those states additionally forbid ENDS consumption indoors. That is New Jersey, North Dakota, and Utah.
The CDC notes that the most recent statistic of the National Youth Tobacco Survey uncovered that last year, 4.5 percent of all secondary school pupils and 1.1 percent of all middle school children had consumed ENDS over a past month. Likewise, their ubiquity is quickly expanding among both youngsters and grown-ups.
Tim Mcafee, M.d., M.p.h., executive of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health stated loud and clear that it is proven that e-cigarettes are not good for children. He emphasized that while ENDS may possibly aid grown-up smokers to replace tobacco items, these products should not be consumed by youth or those who never smoked because they contain nicotine which is damaging and addictive.
According to the investigation, from 2012 onwards, none of the U.S. states established coherent and extensive legal terms for ENDS use, in general or indoors. It also warns against the fact that the lack of solid regulations in this area might pave the way to a reintroduction of tobacco consumption, mainly because high school students are easily influenced by visual inputs promoting smoking.
However, some legal acts regarding the vending of ENDS to minors have been introduced recently by 40 states enacting sales restrictions to underage youngsters. More precisely 12 enactments started producing effect last year and 16 this year.
Strikingly, this increase is in fact due to tobacco industry pressure, which has effectively supported state laws precluding ENDS retail to minors. But this is also troubling according to the report because the 2012 Surgeon General’s Report observed that industry- backed youth access laws that encapsulated provisions weakening endeavors to keep youngsters from beginning to utilize tobacco items.
According to the surgeon General, nicotine exposure during adolescence may have lasting adverse consequences for brain development. In addition, nicotine adversely affects maternal and fetal health during pregnancy, contributing to multiple outcomes such as preterm delivery and stillbirth.
The 2012 Surgeon General’s Report discovered that more or less 90% of all smokers first experience smoking as youngsters. Also, around 75% of adolescent smokers get to be grown-up smokers, regardless of the fact that they want to stop in a couple of years.
