The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ramping up efforts to stop high school students from using e-cigarettes.Mitch Zeller, Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, says vaping among teenagers is reaching epidemic proportions.
“In Duval County, in 2016, 37% of all high school age kids had tried an e-cigarette while they were of high school age.”
Of biggest concern is the JUUL e-cigarette which Zeller said has skyrocketed in popularity,
“They’re designed to resemble flash drives or USB sticks; they contain refillable pods that have very, very high levels of nicotine and flavors that are attractive to kids,” said Zeller.
Zeller says a favorite place to vape—or “juul”—is the school bathroom, according to Zeller. So the FDA is putting up posters in thousands of high schools around the country to warn kids about the dangers.
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Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
