Slashdot Mirror
Tobacco Use is Soaring Among US Kids, Driven By E-cigarettes (axios.com)
Public health officials Monday said there's a growing epidemic of tobacco products currently used by children -- 4.9 million high school and middle school kids used tobacco products in 2018 up from 3.6 million in 2017 -- mainly due to a growth in e-cigarette usage. From a report: For the fifth year in a row, e-cigs were the most popular product amongst high school students, but in 2018 it reached unprecedented epidemic levels, with the addition of another 1.5 million kids, said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Current users" are defined as people who've used a tobacco product in past 30 days. "Frequent users" are defined as people who've used the product for more than 20 out of the past 30 days.
I personally doubt they are any better for you
They are certainly better that tobacco. Nicotine is bad, but the other stuff in tobacco smoke is worse, and you avoid that with vaping.
The problem is that kids are stupid and naive, and they don't realize that vaping is just as addictive as tobacco. By the time they realize how stupid it is, they are hooked.
We need to find a way to keep vaping devices away from pre-18ers. Maybe move to a prescription model. But that might mean less harm reduction for smokers. It is a difficult issue.
If I'm Reading this right, about 15% of American adults smoke these days, compared to about 42% of adults in 1942. Granted, this story is about teenagers that will soon be adults, and a million more than expected is not a number to be scoffed at, but really when we start getting numbers down that low, I don't know how much more outrage is necessary. The number is never going to be zero percent, no matter what the Puritans wish.
It actually isn't as addictive as tobacco. Cigarette smoke contains MAO inhibitors that potentiate the addictive properties of nicotine. Vape juice doesn't have those.
Some vape juice doesn't even have nicotine.
A longitudinal study by the NIH found that vaping is a gateway to smoking, and it is likely that access to vapers increases tobacco use among adolescents.
Oh, absolutely the ritual.
While I'm glad I quit smoking....it really WAS nice to smoke in bars while drinking. You can still in most places down here....and it is tempting.
There's also the social aspect of it....maybe diminishing,
BUT...I found at work as they made you smoke outside, I often was talking with co-workers I don't sit near and getting scuttlebutt, I also found myself talking with people MUCH higher up on the totem pole than I, and while I had their ear, I'd give my views on things as well as getting inside info on how things were going. Often I got selected for things due to familiarity driving I believe in part, by them knowing who I was out in the "smoke hole" with them.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The social aspect at work is very definitely there. Indoors, you couldn't even get 10 seconds with the boss's boss. In the smoking area you could shoot the breeze w/ the CEO.
When I did system installs, I found that a trip to the designated smoking area was sometimes a great way to break through a management log jam.
Considering that thanks to our busted AF border pretty much any kid in the USA can get crack, meth, and heroin less than 20 minutes from their house? Yeah really not so worried about one puffing on an ecig, nope.
BTW if the local teens are any indication (have a grandson that vapes, call 'em "smoky" as you can find him and his buds by the fog bank) the vast majority of 'em? Yeah using no nic, in fact talking to my local vape shop their #1 sellers by a huge margin is no nic, which I assume is relatives getting it for teens as most of the adults I know are on 3mg or 6mg nic.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.