E-Cigs Are Grooming a New Generation of Smokers

The popularity of electronic cigarettes keeps on climbing, only now it's the children who are experimenting with e-cigs in record numbers, which could be a troubling trend.

On the one hand, if e-cigarettes actually manages to replace traditional cigarettes for future generations, that could help wipe out one of America's biggest killers. But e-cigs are something of a double-edged sword: While most health experts agree they're not as bad for you as the traditional variety, there's still a good chance they could be a gateway to conventional cigarettes for young people.

The number of middle-schoolers (that starts at age 11, for those of us too old to remember) and high-schoolers that tried e-smoking doubled last year, shooting up from 1 in 20 kids to 1 in 10, for a grand total of 8 million, according to a new national survey from the Centers for Disease Control.

Of that group, about 3 percent had used an e-cigarette within the last month, implying it could be a regular habit—an addiction, even. That's sending up red flags for health experts. Vaporized nicotine is still super-addictive, but e-cigarette manufacturers say the gadgets are a healthy alternative to smoking because it's not the nicotine that kills, it's the smoke. (Rep. Steve Buyer argued this point in his now-famous speech to Congress about the dangers of smoking lettuce.)

Still the prevailing fear is that the gratifying feeling of puffing on a seemingly harmless, smoke-free gadget could forge a habit in teens who'd otherwise never consider smoking, which could lead down the tobacco road over to traditional cigarettes.

The numbers in the CDC report suggest there's some validity in that fear already. Twenty percent of the middle-schoolers surveyed had e-smoked but never tried a traditional cigarette, but by high school, only 7 percent of kids that had tried e-smoking managed to stay completely away from conventional smokes.

The adolescent brain is more likely to get hooked on nicotine than adults—a fact Big Tobacco exploited for decades by specifically targeted its products to young people. But as of now, e-cigarettes aren't regulated by the FDA, so there's nothing to stop marketers from advertising straight to kids. So if you're looking for an answer for "won't someone think of the children?" the answer is once again, "cigarettes will."

Anti-smoking advocates worry that that will undo 40 years of work to make smoking seem uncool. The director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, Tim McAfee, told the Wall Street Journal that e-cigarette ads are "glamorizing'' tobacco products for a new generation. "This is heading in exactly the wrong direction," he said.

On top of that, in most states there are still no restrictions on e-cigs tobacco to minors, and many brands come in a variety of flavors—fruit, mint, chocolate—that appeal to young people, but that traditional tobacco sellers are banned from offering.

That said, the FDA will probably slap age restrictions on electronic cigarettes soon, even though the jury's still out on exactly what the long-term health effects of e-smoking are. Since it's still a relatively new trend, it'll take more time and further study to know for sure if the benefits outweigh the risks of the new technology.

The answer to that could determine the smoking fate of Gen Z and beyond. If research can prove e-cigs are harmless, maybe they'll become the new standard and usurp the Marlboros and Camels of yesteryear. Or maybe, if regulations for underage use don't kick in soon, the devices will revive smoking's tarnished image and make a dangerous habit seem cool again.