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E-Cigarette Use Getting Younger, More Expansive

DETROIT (WWJ) - A federal study found e-cigarette experimentation more than doubled among middle and high school students between 2011 and 2012 - meaning nearly two million young people have tried them.

E-cigarettes are not regulated like traditional tobacco, and the state legislature is considering whether or not these should be exempt from existing tobacco legislation.

Doctor Matthew Davis, with the Michigan Department of Community Health says, there just isn't enough information on the safety of e-cigarettes to leave them unregulated.

"E-Cigarettes are clearly derived from tobacco in order to get the nicotine, that is the addictive stuff in tobacco cigarettes and in e-cigarettes and along with that nicotine comes other compounds," said Dr. Davis.

He says that some of those compounds are known to cause cancer.

"We need to avoid the trap we fell into in this country fifty or sixty years ago, where when we didn't have enough information about tobacco cigarettes they were allowed to become more and more widely used as well," said Dr. Davis.

More information about e-cigarettes from Michigan.gov

 

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