This post covers youth e-cigarette use in detail, opening with an August 30, 2019 CDC health advisory describing vaping as a public health crisis. It cites 2019 statistics that 27.5% of high school students had vaped in the past month, with close to 1 million youth vaping daily, e-cigarettes as the most-used tobacco product among teens, and 72% of youth users choosing flavored products. It lists product types and names including vape pens, e-cigars, e-hookahs, tanks, mods, personal vaporizers, and JUUL.
It explains that electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are battery-powered devices with a heating element that vaporizes a solution for inhalation, first developed in China and marketed as a lower-harm alternative to, or even a cessation aid for, traditional cigarettes.
It emphasizes that nicotine is addictive and harmful to developing brains from the prenatal period through adolescence, and that many teens start vaping to fit in, often without considering it 'smoking.'
The post flags weak regulation compared to traditional tobacco: appealing flavors like chocolate, fruit, candy, bubblegum, mint, and pina colada (banned in regular cigarettes), free samples reaching underage users, and easy online ordering despite a legal purchase age of 18.
Because e-cigarette solutions aren't required to disclose ingredients, the post notes several health concerns found in vapor and solutions: propylene glycol as an eye/throat/airway irritant linked to asthma with long-term exposure, dangerously high nicotine concentrations in some products (with nicotine-poisoning symptoms including sweating, dizziness, vomiting, and rapid heart rate), and traces of nickel, lead, tin, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, isoprene, and toluene.
It singles out JUUL as the most popular device among youth at the time, noting its pods carry higher and more concentrated nicotine than most competitors, that a large share of users reportedly didn't realize JUUL pods always contain nicotine, an FTC marketing investigation, and its ownership by Philip Morris.
Injury and poisoning statistics cited: 2,035 e-cigarette explosion/burn injuries treated in US emergency rooms from 2015-2017, more than 8,000 nicotine poisonings in children under 6 from 2012-2017, and, as of December 17, 2019, over 2,500 hospitalizations and 54 deaths across 27 states linked to e-cigarette use. The post points to AAPD, AAP, and HealthyChildren.org resources for further reading.