E-cigarette Use Continued to Rise Among Young US Teenagers
About 5 percent of middle-school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2015, up from about 4 percent in 2014, according to data from the CDC and prevention. That is a substantial increase from 2011, when less than 1 percent of middle schoolers used the devices.
Use for high-school students was also trending up, with 16 percent reporting using the devices in 2015, up from 13 percent in 2014.
Policy makers have worried that increased e-cigarette use could make it more likely young people would shift to traditional tobacco cigarettes, which are more toxic. But that does not seem to be happening yet. About 9 percent of high schoolers reported smoking cigarettes in 2015, unchanged from 2014, and down from 16 percent in 2011.
Among middle schoolers, about 2 percent reported smoking traditional cigarettes in 2015, statistically unchanged from 2014. In 2011, about 4 percent of middle schoolers smoked traditional cigarettes
“No form of youth tobacco use is safe,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the C.D.C. in a statement. “Nicotine is an addictive drug and use during adolescence may cause lasting harm to brain development.”
