ST. LOUIS — The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory Tuesday urging new local restrictions including taxes and indoor vaping bans to combat youth e-cigarette use, a pivotal development given the office's global stature on tobacco enforcement.
The move by Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams comes a day after the National Institute for Drug Abuse issued new data showing nearly 21 percent of high school seniors say they vaped a nicotine product within the past 30 days, up from 11 percent a year ago. The increase, part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey on drug use among adolescents, was the largest for any substance use in the survey's 43-year history.
“There’s no more credible or influential voice on nicotine and tobacco than that of the U.S. Surgeon General," says Dr. Josh Sharfstein, a former Maryland health secretary who is now a public health professor and vice dean at Johns Hopkins University. "Today’s advisory is an alert to the nation that e-cigarettes are leading millions of youth into nicotine addiction and placing them at unacceptable risk of harm."
The NCADA in St. Louis welcomed the Surgeon General’s comments about teen vaping on Tuesday.
“I am happy anytime vaping or any substance with addictive properties is being talked about by our top docs. It means they’re paying attention to what’s going on with the American public,” said Kelly Wieser, the associate director of prevention education.
She agreed that there’s been a surge in e-cigarette use by teenagers and young adults in recent years.
“They’re going to want to know what it is, so they’re going to experiment with it. Honestly, there is a lot of peer pressure that is going on in our schools. It’s a status symbol,” she said.
One major issue, Wieser warned, is the danger tobacco use at such a young age can pose. She said the health ramifications of that might not be realized for a generation.
“Any kind of early exposure of an addictive substance, and nicotine is highly addictive, can change the development of a teen’s brain,” she said.
Wieser said the Surgeon General’s proposals about higher vaping taxes and indoor bans could prove to be effective deterrents. But she said prevention, education and intervention must remain part of the equation.
“I think anything you put more taxation on something that it does increase the price. You hope it will take it out of a young person’s ability to buy it,” she said.
Just last week, the Five on Your Side I-TEAM told you teen vaping is such a problem in schools, St. Louis County is considering banning e-cigs in all private and public school buildings.
