E-cigarette use among teens tripled from 2013 to 2014, CDC report says

E-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, says the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of high school students who said they smoked at least one e-cigarette in the past 30 days increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, an increase of 666,000 students to 2 million, while e-cigarette use among middle school students rose from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014, an increase from 120,000 students to 450,000. (Washington Post graphic)

E-cigarettes, which are especially popular among rural teens, are now more popular among middle and high school students than traditional cigarettes, reports CDC. Cigarette smoking actually declined to 9.4 percent. But hookah smoking doubled for middle and high school students, rising from 5.2 percent to 9.4 percent for high school students and 1.1 percent to 2.5 percent for middle school students.

Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, called the spike in ­e-cigarette use “shocking," Brady Dennis reports for The Washington Post. Frieden told reporters, “It’s a really bad thing, and it is subjecting another generation of our children to an addictive substance.”

Dennis writes, "E-cigarettes remain unregulated by the federal government ­although numerous cities and states have passed laws restricting sales to minors and banning the devices in public places. But e-cigarettes do not face the same federal restrictions on television and radio advertising that apply to traditional cigarettes." (Read more)