Soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people “is now a major public health concern,’’ according to a report being published Thursday from the US surgeon general. It is the first comprehensive look on the subject from the nation’s highest public-health authority, and it finds that e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youths, surpassing tobacco cigarettes.
E-cigarettes, which turn nicotine into inhalable vapor, can harm developing brains of teenagers who use them and also can be harmful for people around the user, the equivalent of secondhand smoke, the report said, citing studies in animals.
“Adolescent brains are particularly sensitive to nicotine’s effects’’ and can experience “a constellation of nicotine-induced neural and behavioral alterations,’’ the report said. It urged stronger action to prevent young people from getting access to e-cigarettes.
Some researchers have said that e-cigarette use among youths could act as a gateway to traditional smoking, but the report says the relationship is not yet fully established. Cigarette smoking among youths has fallen sharply in recent years, but use of nicotine products overall remains essentially flat among young people.
With its focus on youth, the report did not address adult use of e-cigarettes, and the most divisive issue of whether the technology is an effective tool to help smokers of traditional cigarettes quit their deadly habit. The report also did not break new scientific ground, but public health advocates said the voice of the surgeon general in the debate marked a milestone.
“It’s the most comprehensive and objective answer to the question of whether e-cigarette use is a matter of serious concern that requires government action,’’ said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “The answer, based on the findings, is: yes.’’
In a preface to the report, the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, wrote that e-cigarette use among high school students increased “an astounding 900 percent’’ from 2011 to 2015. Citing research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report found that 16 percent of high schoolers used e-cigarettes in 2015, up from 13.4 percent a year earlier. In 2015, nearly 38 percent of high schoolers reported having tried an e-cigarette at least once.
Chief among the concerns raised by the report is simply that “nicotine is a dangerous drug’’ to the developing brain, said Terry Pechacek, a professor in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. It has been shown in animal models that nicotine damages the adolescent brain, he said.
But he said the risk is less than combining nicotine with carcinogenic combustion in traditional cigarettes.
New York Times
