STAT

Opinion: Pod mods and vaping are creating a new generation of youths addicted to nicotine

We need to block obvious efforts by the vaping industry and Big Tobacco to hook a new generation of youths on nicotine.
Liquids used for vaping in e-cigarettes on display at the Smoke Depot in Chicago.

The emergence of a new generation of people addicted to nicotine — many of them now in middle school — keeps me up at night.

A few years ago, I and many of my colleagues who have cared for people with tobacco-related diseases breathed a sigh of relief as we watched smoking rates decline. That relief has dissipated as electronic cigarettes, or vaping, sweeps through middle and high schools. We won’t know the full extent of vaping’s health consequences until it’s too late, but we can expect to see a tsunami of related diseases in 20 or 30 years.

Many health professionals agree that e-cigarettes are a useful tool for smokers

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