(Press-News.org) ATLANTA, April 18, 2023 – A new study by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows almost three-quarters of a million more adults in the United States, ages 18-29 years, used e-cigarettes between 2019-2021 during the period that spanned the EVALI outbreak (E-cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury) and COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists report the year-on-year increase was primarily among adults who never smoked cigarettes. The study was published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM).
“Unfortunately, these numbers show we’re moving in the wrong direction concerning e-cigarette use in this vulnerable population,” said Dr. Priti Bandi, scientific director, cancer risk factors & screening surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study. “Our research finding is concerning as it may point to an increase in nicotine addiction risk for young adults, potentially contributing to progression to combustible tobacco products, and may also increase exposure to unknown toxicants, carcinogens, and the risk of respiratory diseases.”
Researchers pooled data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2019, 2020, and 2021 to estimate current e-cigarette use prevalence, adjusted prevalence difference between survey years, and population counts, by age group and cigarette smoking status (persons who currently, formerly, or never smoked).
The study results showed between 2019 and 2021, e-cigarette use prevalence increased from 8.8% in 2019 to 10.2% in 2021 among younger U.S. adults ages 18-29 years. Of note, among those young adults who never smoked cigarettes, e-cigarette use jumped from 4.9% in 2019 to 5.2% in 2020 to 6.4% in 2021. This group of young adults constituted 53% (2.68 million) of younger adults who used e-cigarettes in 2021, increasing by 0.71 million persons from 2019. The study also showed among middle-aged and older U.S. adults, e-cigarette prevalence was similar in 2019 and 2021 irrespective of combustible cigarette smoking status. People who formerly smoked cigarettes constituted the largest population proportion of people who use e-cigarettes among adults older than 30 years in 2021 (51.1%, 3.1 million).
“E-cigarette use is not harmless at any age. It may have serious health risks, including negative short-term effects on airways and blood vessels, and we do not know the long-term effects of their use,” Bandi said. “We must address the rise in e-cigarette use among younger adults who never smoked cigarettes and, at the same time, help those who may have switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes to stop using these devices completely.”
“It’s clear Big Tobacco’s strategy is to addict future generations to its products with e-cigarettes, putting the health of the country at risk,” said Lisa Lacasse, president, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society. “Policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels must take action now to protect the public, especially youth, from this predatory industry. E-cigarettes must be regulated like all other tobacco products, and we urge the FDA to complete and enforce the premarket review process for all new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.”
Resources from the ACS on how to quit e-cigarettes can be found here. Information on cigarette smoking cessation can be found here.
Dr. Ahmedin Jemal is senior author of the study. Other ACS authors include: Jessica Star, Adair K. Minihan, Dr. Minal Patel, and Dr. Nigar Nargis.
# # #
About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. For more than 100 years, we have been improving the lives of people with cancer and their families as the only organization combating cancer through advocacy, research, and patient support. We are committed to ensuring everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. To learn more, visit cancer.org or call our 24/7 helpline at 1-800-227-2345. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
END
Brand-name drugs cost two to three times more in the U.S. than in other countries, but many of the top-selling brand name drugs may provide little added therapeutic benefit. A new study led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, used public Medicare data to identify the 50 highest-selling brand-name drugs in 2020. The researchers evaluated their therapeutic benefit compared to existing standards of care, based on ratings from the national health technology assessment (HTA) organizations of Canada, France, and Germany. The team found that 27 of the 50 drugs received ...
Stars that contain comparatively large amounts of heavy elements provide less favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life than metal-poor stars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Solar System Research and for Chemistry as well as from the University of Göttingen have now found. The team showed how the metallicity of a star is connected to the ability of its planets to surround themselves with a protective ozone layer. Crucial to this is the intensity of the ultraviolet light that the star emits into space, in different wavelength ranges. The study provides scientists searching ...
Supersolids are a relatively new and exciting area of research. They exhibit both solid and superfluid properties simultaneously. In 2019, three research groups were able to demonstrate this state for the first time beyond doubt in ultracold quantum gases, among them the research group led by Francesca Ferlaino from the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck and the ÖAW Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck.
In 2021, Francesca Ferlaino's team studied in detail the life cycle of supersolid states ...
University of School of Medicine researchers have identified a gene that plays a crucial role in determining our risk for heart attacks, deadly aneurysms, coronary artery disease and other dangerous vascular conditions.
The discovery advances our understanding of the underlying causes of a wide range of serious health conditions, including atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and moves us closer to new treatments and preventive measures that could help people live longer, healthier lives.
“The first step towards translating the knowledge of population risk for vascular disease is disentangling the fundamental cellular ...
(WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2023) – Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who live in extreme poverty and were undergoing maintenance therapy faced an almost two-fold greater risk of relapse compared with kids who weren’t as poor, according to a study published in today’s issue of Blood. Moreover, a higher proportion of these children had difficulty adhering to treatment, though researchers said this only partially explains the link between poverty and the risk of relapse.
“ALL is a curable disease, so while we observed relatively few relapses in total, children living in extreme poverty – those whose families were really stretched thin and not able ...
Vitamin D deficiency could be the reason African American men experience more aggressive prostate cancer at a younger age compared with European American men, new research from Cedars-Sinai Cancer suggests. The multi-institutional study, published today in Cancer Research Communications, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), could pave the way for revised nutritional guidelines.
While previous research has investigated vitamin D in the context of health disparities, this is the first study to look at its functions in a genome-wide manner in African American versus European American ...
New York, New York — The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and Hevolution Foundation are pleased to announce the inaugural Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research recipients. Eighteen three-year awards of US $375,000 each have been granted to support research projects in basic biology of aging or geroscience — a research paradigm based on addressing the biology of ...
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – In a unique analysis of experimental data, nuclear physicists have made the first-ever observations of how lambda particles, so-called “strange matter,” are produced by a specific process called semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). What’s more, these data hint that the building blocks of protons, quarks and gluons, are capable of marching through the atomic nucleus in pairs called diquarks, at least part of the time. These results come from an experiment conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
It’s a result that has been ...
INDIANAPOLIS – Serving on the front lines in the arduous battle against the coronavirus, emergency department (ED) physicians are among the true heroes of the pandemic, working long, stressful hours at great personal risk, especially in the many months before vaccines became available. A pilot study examining the feasibility, receptivity and preliminary effectiveness of peer-support groups for ED doctors during COVID-19 found this support provided potential benefit in terms of reduction of mental health stresses involved in emergency care during this time.
The researchers assessed change in symptoms of distress, depression and burnout before and after participating ...
Public health messages that focus on protecting others are more effective at increasing vaccination rates than messages focused on protecting oneself, according to a study. Vaccine hesitancy is a challenge for public health workers and others concerned with reducing the deleterious effects of infectious diseases. Elizabeth Shanahan and colleagues tested three visual policy narrative messages promoting COVID-19 vaccination that emphasized protecting oneself, one’s circle of friends and family, or one’s community. A non-narrative control message simply urged participants to “get the vaccine” with an accompanying image of a syringe. ...
