New Hampshire has an Alarming High Rate of Teen Vaping

The Union Leader is reporting that New Hampshire teens have the highest rate of teen vaping in the country. Why is the question? In a recent report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 4% of New Hampshire teens vape at least once a day and more than 40% of New Hampshire teens have tried an e-cigarette or vape. The most alarming statistic is that 5.7% vaped at least 20 days in the month before the survey was conducted.

Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s Mitch Zeller about what can be done about it. She points out that one of the main concerns she has is the attraction teens have to flavor vape liquid.  She also raised the concern that banning the flavored vape liquid could lead vape manufacturers like Juul to just relabel the products to get around the ban.

The Union Leader reports that 5 million teens nationwide vape or use e-cigarettes per reports by the CDC. The problem has become so bad that some school districts are installing “vaping detectors.” Education and awareness would be a wise step to explain the dangers of vaping to teens.

So, if you have a teen, talk to them about the dangers of vaping as you would the dangers of cigarettes. It would be a great idea if education could be reinforced in our school's Health classes. Smoking cigarettes is down with teens, but we need to do more to educate them on the dangers of vaping.