Teens using e-cigs much more likely to smoke cigarettes

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"The increasing number of young people who use e-cigarettes should be a concern for parents and the public health community, especially since youth e-cigarette users were nearly twice as likely to have intentions to smoke conventional cigarettes compared with youth who had never tried e-cigarettes," said lead author Rebecca Bunnell, associate director for science in CDC's Office on Smoking.

The CDC study came the same day the American Heart Association (AHA) urged e-cigarettes to the subject to the same laws that apply to tobacco products.

The AHA's first policy statement on e-cigarettes also recommended a federal ban on these products for minors.

"Recent studies raise concerns that e-cigarettes may be a gateway to traditional tobacco products for the nation's youth, and could renormalize smoking in our society," Nancy Brown, CEO of the association said in a statement.

"These disturbing developments have helped convince the association that e-cigarettes need to be strongly regulated, thoroughly researched and closely monitored."

According to the CDC, more than 3,200 American youth smoke their first cigarette each day. Unless the smoking rate is rapidly reduced, 5.6 million American children alive today -- about one in every 13 -- will die prematurely from a smoking-related disease.

Smoking kills nearly half a million Americans every year and more than 16 million Americans live with smoking-related diseases, which cost 132 billion U.S. dollars a year in direct health care expenses, the CDC said.

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