More US teens are vaping

There has been a significant increase in e-cigarette use by US teenagers this year, according to a new report. A survey by researchers at the University of Michigan found that the percentage of students in the 12th grade who vaped nicotine increased from 11% in 2017 to 21% this year.

Researchers noted that the increase in vaping reverses the trend in the declining use of nicotine by teens. The Monitoring for the Future study surveyed 45,000 students across the US, asking if they had vaped during the past 30 days. It found that this year’s rise in nicotine use by students was the biggest one-year increase recorded in the study’s 44-year history, even surpassing the rapid progress of marijuana use in the 1970s.

The study also found that the percentage of students in the 8th grade who vaped nicotine rose from 3.5% to 6.1%, while the percentage of students in the 10th grade who vaped increased from 8% to 16%. The increase in vaping by 9th-grade to 12th-grade students meant that 1.3 million or more extra teenagers were now vaping. The study also found that the number of teenagers who vaped marijuana was on the rise.

The study did not find any significant change in the use of marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, or other popular addictive drugs, while binge drinking by students in the 12th grade underwent a sharp decrease in 2018. The rate of decline in the number of students who smoked cigarettes appeared to slow down this year.