Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says parents may be surprised to find their children have e-cigarettes in their backpacks as they head back to school.
E-cigarettes are electronic devices that deliver nicotine to the user with water vapor. DeWine told a press conference Friday that their use by young people is growing rapidly.
“The National Youth Tobacco Survey cites nearly an 800 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students between 2011 and 2014. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that teenagers now use e-cigarettes more than all forms of tobacco including conventional cigarettes,” DeWine said.
Sale of e-cigarettes to young people under the age of 18 became illegal in Ohio last year. DeWine says he’s pushing for greater federal regulation of the devices and liquid nicotine by the FDA.