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The jury has been out on whether or not e-cigarettes are a “gateway” to later using and becoming addicted to full-blown tobacco products, especially in young people. Related: People Are Vaping Vitamins - but is That Really Good for You? In another story about the new report by the New York Times, the author notes, “If a vaper wanted to avoid a particular chemical, they’d have a hard time figuring out which flavors contain certain chemicals and which ones don’t." E-cigs contain nicotine, other chemicals and flavors - their big selling point for many young people - with names such as bubble gum, strawberry shortcake, cinnamon, and ambrosia. That includes almost 1.7 million high school students who reported using e-cigarettes within the past month, the report said. Millions of Americans use e-cigarettes - a liquid (also called e-liquid, e-juice, and vape-juice) that’s heated up into an aerosol and inhaled by users. Related: Is Vaping Bad for You? Yep - and It Was Just Hit With Another Statewide Ban Eaton is the dean and vice provost of the graduate school of the University of Washington, Seattle. In other cases, such as when adult smokers use them to quit smoking, they offer an opportunity to reduce smoking-related illness,” David Eaton, who heads the committee that wrote the report, told NPR. "In some circumstances, such as their use by nonsmoking adolescents and young adults, their adverse effects clearly warrant concern.
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“When I give talks about e-cigs I call them ‘Back to the Future’ because I feel like I’ve gotten into a DeLorean and gone back in time,” says Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and the director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. The Centers for Disease Control reported last year that 1.8 million middle- and high-school students said they had tried e-cigarettes in 2012- double the number from the previous year.
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More than 80% of the advertisements were for the brand blu eCigs.
YEP ECIG LOGO TV
In all, youth exposure to e-cigarette ads on TV increased 256% from 2011 to 2013, and exposure for young adults jumped 321%. That’s a sharp rise from just a couple of years earlier, according to the study. The Pediatrics study found that 50% of youth, ages 12 to 17, were exposed to an average of 21 e-cigarette ads from October 2012 to September 2013, and half of young adults, ages 18 to 24, were exposed to an average of 35 e-cigarette ads during the same period. If you do, they may think it’s something to emulate-especially given the onslaught of ads reinforcing that vaping-is-cool message. You should certainly express to your kids your own struggles to quit cigarette smoking, if that’s the case, but don’t vape around them. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has found that “parental attitudes, opinions, and feelings about their kids’ smoking status greatly influence whether or not kids will smoke, even when the parents smoke.” Vince Willmore, the organization’s vice president of communications, says the same principle is sure to hold true for vaping. We need to make sure that our kids understand that we don’t want them to vape and will be disappointed if they do. And share that some experts are concerned that because they contain nicotine, e-cigs may be a gateway to real cigarettes. Tell them that these companies have a vested interest in promoting the idea that e-cigs aren’t bad for them-but the fact is, we aren’t really sure. Let them know that e-cigarette companies have them in their sights and, as I’ve written, are trying to reel them in with fun flavors and sexy ads that are designed to make them feel all grown up. So, in the absence of any government regulation of e-cig advertising, here are a few things parents can do:įor starters, as always, the best thing we can do is talk to our kids.
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