The percentage of middle-school and high-school students using so-called emerging tobacco products is increasing even as their rate of tobacco use in general is remaining relatively constant, federal scientists reported Thursday.
Last year, 6.7% of middle-school students and 23.3% of high-school students said in a survey reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that they had used a tobacco product at least once in the previous 30 days.
Last year’s overall rate of tobacco use differs little from what it was in 2011, when 7.5% of middle school students and 24.3% of high school students said they had used a tobacco product.
One in seven (14.0%) said last year that they smoked cigarettes, down from 15.8% in 2011.
But the surveys found a bigger change when they asked about hookahs, snus, dissolvable tobacco and e-cigarettes.
E-cigarette use nearly doubled between 2011 and 2012 for middle-school students, from 0.6% to 1.1%, and the use of hookahs by Latinos rose from 1.7% to 3.0%.
Full story of teens using tobacco products at CNN Health
Beedie Savage – President of Quantum Units Education