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.
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.