Health officials are blaming e-cigarette startups like Juul for the increase in teens taking up vaping in a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose in the last year: from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018 a difference of 1.5 million, according to the study.
In recent years, teens have been quick to drop traditional cigarette smoking and pick up the newer, trendier way to consume nicotine: vaping.
“The skyrocketing growth of young people’s e-cigarette use over the past year threatens to erase progress made in reducing youth tobacco use,” CDC Director Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. “It’s putting a new generation at risk for nicotine addiction.”
Critics and public health officials have previously called on Juul, which is valued at $38 billion and controls over 70 percent of the e-cig market, to take sweeping measures in order to prevent its product from getting into the hands of young people.
