Fewer adolescents are smoking cigarettes in Oregon according to a new federal study. But the same cannot be said for E-cigarettes.
Back in 2003, about 11 percent of Oregonian kids ages 12 to 17 reported that they’d smoked cigarettes in the last month.
By 2013, that had dropped to about six percent.
Doctor Peter Delany with the U.S. Health Department says that this means state efforts like increasing cigarette taxes, restricting smoking in public places and funding smoking prevention programs are working.
But he cautioned, more needs to be done about e-cigarettes. “Not only do we not know the overall public health impact of e-cigarette use, we do know that if they try using this, then they’re more likely to say, ‘oh, maybe I’ll try a regular cigarette.’"
The use of e-cigarettes among teenagers tripled last year, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 6.1 percent of US teens have smoked in the last month. In Oregon, the rate is slightly higher at 6.2 percent.
The rate varied across the country with a low of 4.3 percent in California and a high of 9.5 percent in Kentucky.
Arizona Dept. Health
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