FollowAmid the US government leaving no stone unturned to check use of electronic cigarettes among teenagers, a government study indicates a sharp rise in the use of these modern cigarettes by the adolescents.
The trend tends to be troubling, public-health authorities stressed.
Notably, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is mulling over proposing a policy to regulate these battery-powered devices, which turn nicotine-laced liquid into vapor and represent a small but fast-growing alternative to traditional cigarettes. The proposals for regulations for e-cigarettes are likely to arrive by next month. The findings may influence the FDA decision heavily.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of high-school students who have tried an e-cigarette rose to 10% in 2012 from 4.7% in 2011. Some 2.7 percent of middle school students surveyed had used e-cigarettes in 2012, up from 1.4 percent in 2011. Last year, nearly 1.8 million middle and high school students nationwide tried e-cigarettes, the report said.
Since 2010, more than two dozen states have moved to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors amid an absence of federal oversight. The twelve states that have laws preventing e-cigarette sales to minors includes- California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. New York banned e-cigarette smoking within 100 feet of an entrance to a public or private school.
Meanwhile, federal rules already prohibit the sale of traditional tobacco products such as regular cigarettes to anyone under 18.
