iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 250,000 kids who have never smoked a cigarette used e-cigarettes in 2013.
The study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, finds that the number of youths using e-cigarettes without the intention of quitting smoking is three times higher than in 2011. The CDC cites data from the last three years of National Youth Tobacco surveys, which gathers information from middle and high school students.
Youths who have never smoked cigarettes, but used e-cigarettes were nearly twice as likely to plan on smoking conventional cigarettes than those who had not used e-cigarettes. Even more concerning, of the students who said they had never smoked a conventional cigarette, but had used e-cigarettes, 43.9 percent said they intended to smoke conventional cigarettes within the next year. That same figure among students who had never used e-cigarettes is just 21.5 percent.
“We are very concerned about nicotine use among our youth,” Tim McAfee, Director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health said, “regardless of whether it comes from conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes or other tobacco products.”
The CDC also noted that evidence has linked nicotine with adverse effects on adolescent brain development. Those effects, the CDC says, could result in, “lasting deficits in cognitive function.”
The CDC study also found that teens who were exposed to tobacco advertisements were more likely to intend to smoke than those who reported not being exposed.
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