E-cigarettes growing popularity among teens
Electronic cigarettes are growing in popularity among teens across the nation. Many students view them as harmless; however, they have a high potential for addiction due to their high levels of nicotine.
Kent Hobbs, Director of student support services in Pocatello School District agrees that this has become a growing problem. “The increase in tobacco use among kids is mostly because of e-cigarettes. Our incidents of tobacco violations have increased significantly. I would almost bet that most of that increase has come from e-cigarettes.”
Most student wouldn’t even consider e-cigarettes as smoking. Instead, it is called “vaping.” The smoke is a heated water-based solution that is inhaled from a smoking device.
“Several years ago we had instances where kids were actually doing it inside the classroom so we’ve talked a lot to administrators and they talked to their staff about paying attention.”
The company, “Juul,” is among the most popular brand of e-cigarettes. And, may be considered the most subtle. They are slender, sleek and can easily be mistaken for a flashdrive.
Tracy Lambson, a health education specialist at Southeastern Idaho Public Health, says the Juul product was made for adults trying to quit smoking.
“Juul the product, if you take a look at the company, what it claimed to do when it originated the product, was to actually get to get adult smokers to get off the conventional cigarettes.”
Unfortunately, high school students are beginning to use the at alarming rates. Lambson also believes that the 7 thousand different flavors of vape juice could increase the sale-rate among teens. “There are so many different flavors. There are over 7 thousand different flavors of e-juice on the market. Anywhere from blueberry cheesecake to mountain dew to flavors you wouldn’t think were harmful.”
