January 5, 2017 – e-cigs and Surgeon General

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Anchor lead:  What are the implications of the recent Surgeon General’s report on e-cigarette use among US youth? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Teenagers in the US use e-cigarettes in a practice known as vaping much more often than they smoke traditional cigarettes, a report from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy indicates, and in fact are the most common tobacco product adolescents use. Enid Neptune, an anti-smoking advocate and lung expert at Johns Hopkins, says while some discord exists on e-cigs as an aid to smoking cessation, there is no doubt about their harm to young people.

Neptune: What is not controversial is the fact that e-cigarettes are not safe for use by youth. What Surgeon General Murthy did was he focused on the components of this epidemic that reflect on this issue of safety. And also reflect on the burden of use that’s stratospheric among the youth. The data is that there’s been a 900% increase in the use of e-cigarettes among youth between 2011 and 2015.  :30

The report notes that no one knows the long term impact of vaping. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.