NEW YORK -- A new study from the New York Health Department revealed a significant rise in the number of high school students in the state who used electronic cigarettes, nearly doubling from 10.5% in 2014 to 20.6% in 2016, according to the New York Daily News.
The study is one of a number of recent studies attempting to track the behavior of youth around e-cigarettes.
The New York data prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to call for a 10-cent-per-milliliter tax on e-liquids, as well as proposing e-liquids be part of the state’s Clean Air Act. That inclusion would ban e-cigarette use in restaurants, workplaces and on school grounds, the newspaper reported.
“These startling numbers demonstrate both the overwhelming success of New York’s smoking-cessation programs, which has led to record-low teen cigarette use, and the need to close dangerous loopholes that leave e-cigarettes unregulated,” Cuomo said in a statement to the Daily News. “Combating teen tobacco use in all of its forms today will help create a healthier tomorrow for an entire generation of New Yorkers.”
As Gov. Cuomo said, the increase in e-cigarette use runs counter to a drop in the use of traditional cigarettes among high school students in New York state, which fell to a record low of 4.3% in 2016. In 2014, the rate was 7.3% and in 2000, the rate was almost four times that at 27.1%, the Daily News reported.
The state outlaws the sale or distribution of e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine to people under age 18.
“Unfortunately, the progress that we have made with traditional cigarettes is being undercut by e-cigarettes,” Julie Hart, New York government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, told the Daily News. “What we are hearing from kids is that this is the next cool thing.”
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