E-CIGARETTES
E-cigarettes & Vapor
River City
Auto Body
We are proud to keep our youth
headed in the right direction to
remain abuse free!
641-423-3070
326 1st St. SW • Mason City, IA
J&J
Machine, Welding &
Fabrication
“Proudly
Fabricating an
Abuse Free Future
for our youth”
1580 15th Street SW - Mason City, IA
641-424-3456
Plumb Supply
Company
“All of us at Plumb Supply
are proud to supply our
youth with the tools they
need to remain abuse free!”
45 19th St. SW - Mason City, IA
641-423-0164
Cigarettes a growing
problem on School Grounds
Photo Source: www.ocregister.com
Electronic cigarette use
among teens more than doubled in the last year, according to a new government
study, prompting concern
from health officials who
say the effects of long-term
use of the products is still
unknown.
The Centers for Disease
Control
and
Prevention
reported that 4.7 percent of
teens said they had used an
e-cigarette in 2011, and that
number rose to 10 percent in
2012.
E-cigarettes are controversial. Some say they can be a
useful tool for smokers looking to quit cigarettes because they provide vaporized nicotine to the user without the toxic chemicals that come from real cigarette smoke.
But public health experts point out that
there’s no evidence of the safety of using
electronic cigarettes. They also worry that
e-cigarettes could be a “gateway” to using
traditional tobacco products.
“The increased use of e-cigarettes
by teens is deeply troubling,” said CDC
Director Dr. Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.,
in a statement accompanying the study.
“Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many
teens who start with e-cigarettes may be
condemned to struggling with a lifelong
addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”
The report showed a connection between
using electronic cigarettes and using conventional cigarettes among youths. Specifically, 76.3 percent of middle- and
high-schoolers who reported using an
e-cigarette in the last month also said that
they had smoked a regular cigarette in that
same time period. Among middle-schoolers, four in five who had tried an e-cigarette at least once said they had also tried
a regular cigarette.
In total, the report showed that 1.78
million middle- and high-schoolers had
tried an electronic cigarette at least once
last year.
Unlike traditional tobacco products, the
Food and Drug Administration does not
yet regulate electronic cigarettes, though
12
| Iowa - 2014 | abusemagazine.org
it has said that it plans to in the future.
Because there is no official regulation yet,
no minimum age to buy the products has
been set, though the Wall Street Journal reported that the FDA is discussing
whether to make the minimum purchasing
age 18 or 19, as well as whether to ban
online sales.
There is not much safety information
available on e-cigarettes. Past research
has suggested that electronic cigarettes
don’t seem to have any negative effects
on the heart. However, the FDA did find in
a 2009 lab analysis that some e-cigarettes
do contain carcinogens, as well as a chemical called diethylene glycol that is also
found in anti-freeze. And another recent
study suggested e-cigarettes could harm
the lungs by increasing airway resistance.
They are hard to detect – tiny devices
that look like markers or lip gloss, easily
hidden in backpacks among a jumble of
school supplies.
Teens can fill them with simple flavor
cartridges, but they can also load them
with marijuana oils or nicotine inserts that
smell like watermelon or piña colada or
nothing at all.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian
Gunsolley, a school resource officer at
Laguna Hills High School, holds some of the
electronic cigarettes he has confiscated in
the last school year. A similar tool, called
the icloud pen, left, is used for marijuana
oil or “pot butter.”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/electroniccigarette-teens-middle-school-high-school_n_3873848.html