tobacco users in 2017, 47 percent of high schoolers and 42 percent of middle schoolers used two or more tobacco products.
Among middle school students in 2017, 3.3 percent used e-cigarettes, 2.1 percent smoked cigarettes, 1.9 percent used smokeless tobacco, 1.5 percent used cigars, 1.4 percent used hookahs, 0.4 smoked pipe tobacco, and 0.3 percent used bidis.
Among high school students in 2017, 11.7 percent used e-cigarettes, 7.7 percent used cigars, 7.6 percent used cigarettes, 5.5 percent used smokeless tobacco. 3.3 percent smoked hookahs, 0.8 percent used pipe tobacco and 0.7 used bidis.
“Despite promising declines in tobacco use, far too many young people continue to use tobacco products, including e-cigarettes,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said in an agency news release. “Comprehensive, sustained strategies can help prevent and reduce tobacco use and protect our nation’s youth from this preventable health risk.”
To curtail tobacco use by children, the health officials recommend:
- Increasing prices of tobacco products
- Sustaining media campaigns that warn about the dangers of tobacco product use
- Restricting youth access to tobacco products
- Protecting people from exposure to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette aerosol
Now that you know the hard-hitting facts, what will you do about it? Will you let a young teen in your life know the things that tobacco can and will do to their body? For more information on smoking and its effects, visit our Health Conditions tab on BlackDoctor.org.
SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, June 7, 2018