Number of Middle and High School Students Using E-Cigarettes on the Rise

The number of middle and high school students using electronic cigarettes more than doubled from between 2011 and 2013, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The findings showed that the percentage of high school students who reported ever using a so-called "e-cigarette" rose from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 10 percent in 2012. Furthermore, high school students using e-cigarettes within the past 30 days rose from 1.5 percent to 2.8 percent during this same time period.

Use among middle school students had doubled as well, reaching 3 percent in 2012.

This translates, according to the report, to more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide having used e-cigarettes at some point as of last year -- a trend that has health officials worried.

"The increased use of e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a press release. "Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes."

According to the study, 76.3 percent of students who used e-cigarettes within the past 30 days also smoked conventional cigarettes during the same period. Meanwhile, one in five middle school students who reported ever using e-cigarettes also reported never having tried conventional cigarettes, raising the concern that e-cigarettes may represent an gateway to tobacco products, including cigarettes, health officials said.

"About 90 percent of all smokers begin smoking as teenagers," said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC Office on Smoking and Health. "We must keep our youth from experimenting or using any tobacco product. These dramatic increases suggest that developing strategies to prevent marketing, sales, and use of e-cigarettes among youth is critical."