Utah teens are experimenting with e-cigarettes

SALT LAKE CITY — A battery-powered device as small as a No. 2 pencil is becoming a big enough deal that the Utah PTA is taking aim.

The local organization of parents and teachers on Tuesday put electronic cigarettes at the top of its list, along with alcohol, drugs and other tobacco products, hoping to get state leaders to take notice of increasing trends among children and teens.

Nearly 8 percent of Utah's twelfth-graders reported they had experimented with e-cigarettes and 3 percent had used them in the past 30 days, according to a 2011 Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health survey of more than 55,000 Utah school children, conducted by the Utah Department of Health. For the first time, the agency this year paid to add questions concerning e-cigarettes, however, the data remains unpublished at this time.

Among 19- to 24-year-olds, 25 percent reported having tried e-cigarettes and 9 percent continued to use them, according to the health department.

"There's a lot of danger associated with these cigarettes," Utah PTA President Gainell Rogers said. "It is a safety issue for our children as well as a health issue."

Limited research on e-cigarettes makes it difficult to assess those risks. The lack of evidence has prompted the American Cancer Society, and other advocacy organizations, to refrain from taking a stance on e-cigarette use. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that e-cigarettes do contain harmful levels of nicotine, a substance the agency classifies as a stimulant drug.

E-cigarette manufacturers claim the product is safer than cigarettes, as a vaporized mixture of various chemicals and low amounts of nicotine actually enters the body through inhalation, instead of a steady stream of straight nicotine from an ignited, tobacco-filled cigarette. The product simulates the look, feel and flavor of smoking, according to a website promoting Green Nicotine, an e-cigarette brand previously sold at the Fashion Place Mall.

"There is no safe level of tobacco smoke," said David Neville, spokesman for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program at the Utah Department of Health.

In smoking a cigarette, he said, a user generally knows how much nicotine is being consumed. "They know if they are a half-a-pack-a-day smoker. When it comes to an electronic cigarette, you just don't know. You just keep on smoking," Neville said.