THURSDAY, Dec. 11, 2014 (HealthDay News) More than 16 million children in the United States can buy electronic cigarettes legally, even though the devices are not safe for them, a new government report says.

The report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also found that hundreds of millions of Americans are not protected from indoor exposure to secondhand e cigarette aerosol.

This “aerosol is not harmless water vapor it can contain nicotine and other toxins,” Brian King, senior scientific advisor in the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in an agency news release.

Forty states forbid the sale of e cigarettes to minors, but 10 states and the District of Columbia do permit such sales. That means that more than 16 million youngsters 17 and younger can legally purchase the devices in those states, the researchers determined.

The latest data show that 4.5 percent of all high school students and 1.1 percent of all middle school students in the United States had used e cigarettes within the past 30 days, according to the report.

“We know e cigarettes are not safe for youth,” Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in the news release.

While e cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) “may have the potential to benefit established adult smokers if used as a complete substitute for all smoked tobacco products, ENDS should not be used by youth and adult non tobacco users because of the harmful effects of nicotine and other risk exposures, as well as the risk for progression to other forms of tobacco use,” McAfee said.

Secondhand emissions from e cigarettes are another issue. Twenty six states and the District of Columbia ban smoking in restaurants, workplaces and bars, but only three of those states New Jersey, North Dakota and Utah also prohibit indoor use of e cigarettes, the report said.

That means that more than 300 million Americans, including 70 million children, are exposed to either secondhand smoke from cigarettes or aerosol from e cigarettes, according to the study in the Dec. 11 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC.

“Exposure to nicotine can harm adolescent brain development and can be toxic to fetuses. The standard for protecting the health of children and bystanders should be clean air, free of toxic secondhand smoke as well as ENDS aerosol,” King said.

E cigarettes are marketed as a way to help people stop smoking, but there is no proof they actually improve smokers’ chances of long term quitting, the CDC said. Proven methods including counseling and medications.

Robert Preidt

Copyright &#169 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

SOURCE U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, Dec. 11, 2014

Marshfield: officials increasing age to buy cigarettes and e-cigarettes to 21

Cigarettes online Blog Archive Bma – e-cigarettes
By John Penny Posted on December 30, 2014Posted in Local News

The Marshfield Board of Health met Monday night to discuss raising the age to purchase both cigarettes and electronic cigarettes to 21.

Presently the age restriction to buy cigarettes is 18 in Marshfield and there are no age restrictions to purchase e cigarettes.

Marshfield Board of Health Chairman Dr. Gerry Maher said the board is taking steps to raise the age to purchase both products.

We are raising the age on smoking in the town of Marshfield to 21, and we are also doing that same age regulation for the e cigarettes.

Regulations that restrict where people can smoke regular cigarettes will now also include e cigarettes.

We have tried to keep the e cigarette regulations the same as the smoking regulations that we presently have in the town of Marshfield. If you cannot smoke in the town of Marshfield in a specific location such as the library, the baseball fields the same regulation will go into effect for the e cigarettes, Maher explained.

The board will hold a public hearing on the draft regulations, which are expected to go into effect July 1,2015.

Standard Podcast 0 56 Play Now Play in Popup Download (125) Tags John Penny, Marshfield Board of Health About John Penny John Penny is a town news reporter at WATD. He primarily covers stories in the towns of Marshfield, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Abington and Quincy.