You're listening to life kit from NPR.
Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.
Today we're going to talk about tobacco products, vaping and teenagers.
The University of Michigan has been doing this ongoing study of Americans and what drugs they use for decades.
And the researchers, they ask adolescents in 8th, 10th and 12th grades what drugs do you use and how often?
So when it comes to tobacco products, there's good news and bad news.
Kids these days are smoking cigarettes a lot less.
In fact, cigarette use is at or near the lowest ever recorded since the start of the survey in 1975.
The bad news, instead, the kids are vaping.
Overall, the highest rates are among those that are 17 to 18 years of age where the prevalence is 23%.
Report having a vape in the past year.
So it's one out of five.
It peaked around 2019 and then it has slowly go down.
But it's still extremely high among teenagers.
One in five high school seniors.
That's astoundingly high.
And it's worth pointing out here, getting addicted to and quitting cigarettes is not the same as getting addicted to and quitting nicotine vapes.
We'll get into why in a moment.
But parents should know it's a whole new world out there and the old rules don't necessarily apply.
So on this episode of Life Kit, how to talk to teens about using e cigarettes and how to help them quit.