Thanks to decades of aggressive anti-smoking campaigns, rates of smoking among young adults are at an all-time low. But anti-tobacco crusaders are now battling something that threatens all their hard work: e-cigarettes.
The latest stats show that use of e-cigarettes among middle and high school students doubled between 2011 and 2012. The number is still low (about 10%), but the upward trend is disturbing to health officials. And health advocates have been pushing the FDA to include e-cigarettes under its regulatory umbrella.
Their wish may come true. The agency announced a proposal to prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to people under 18. This requires consumers to show proof of age at purchase. It has also requested that its regulatory authority be extended to electronic cigarettes. It could take a year or more for the regulations to go into effect. Especially if tobacco companies sue to block the legislation. This is why many states have gone ahead and extended their smoke-free ordinances to include e-cigarettes.
We asked Robin Mermelstein, PhD, a professor of psychology and the director for the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, for this primer on e-cigarettes to help parents keep their teens from getting hooked.
The Product
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that convert liquid nicotine and flavor into a vapor or mist, which users inhale. Some look very similar to conventional cigarettes while others look like bulky, oversized pens.
The Lingo
Devices are variously called e-cigarettes, vaporizers, or “digitals” (versus “analogs” or conventional cigarettes), and inhaling is called “vaping.”
The Ingredients
Like conventional cigarettes, e-cigs contain nicotine, which is addictive, but they are touted as being free of carcinogens such as tar and carbon dioxide. That’s all well and good, says Mermelstein, but because the E-cigs haven’t been regulated, no one can be sure what they contain. “We don’t know what chemicals are in them, and people may be combining them with other additives.”
The Sellers
As domestic sales of conventional cigarettes slump, big tobacco companies are now selling e-cigs such as MarkTen (Altria), Vuse (Reynolds American), and Blu, which Lorillard bought in 2012.
Critics say, they’re targeting young smokers with ubiquitous ads at music festivals, race car events, and sporting venues and featuring “cool” flavors such as cherry, grape, chocolate, piña colada and peach schnapps. “They’re marketed in ways to appeal to youth even though they are not sold to youth,” says Mermelstein.
The place they are most easily accessible to teens is online. “There are a lot of sales on the Internet, where they can’t tell how old you are.” E-cigs are also sold at smoke and vape shops and pop-up kiosks, where not all states ban sales to minors.
The Risks
The teenage brain is in a developmental period that makes it particularly susceptible to addictive substances such as nicotine, says Mermelstein. “I don’t think any parent wants their kids addicted to nicotine,” she says. Plus, she adds, we don’t know what other chemicals or substances are in e-cigs and vaporizers, or if vaping leads to conventional smoking. “Young kids are less likely to make a distinction between smoking and e-cigarettes.”
The Conversation
Talk to your kids about e-cigarettes. “Ask them what they think of them and if their friends are doing it,” Mermelstein advises. “Get a sense of your child’s thoughts and determine his or her susceptibility.”
Familiarize yourself with the lingo and ask about vaporizers and “digitals,” since many teens think vaporizers are not e-cigarettes and may say they aren’t using them. If your child thinks E-cigs sound appealing, remind him or her that until more is known about the risks, they’re just too dangerous.
“Why would you want your child to start a nicotine addiction as a teenager that he or she may never kick?” You wouldn’t.
