COLUMBUS – New research shows that the use of electronic cigarettes and vaping products is higher in Ohio than in the nation as a whole while scientists are beginning to worry about the health effects of the e-cigarettes.
Nearly half of Ohio’s young adults report using an electronic cigarette, according to new data from the 2018 Ohio Health Issues Poll and, while usage is lower among those over 30, rates in Ohio are still above national average.
“We’ve created a product to which we don’t really know the long-term effects are and we’re marketing in a way that’s very appealing to young people with flavors, and marketing on the internet and putting it out where kids can get very easy accessibility to it,” Mary Makley Wolff, director of the Coalition for a Drug-Free Clermont County.
Nearly 60 percent of Ohio adults in the poll supported a state tax on e-cigarettes.
At the same time, researchers at The Ohio State University say their data suggests that people who vape and smoke cigarettes are no more likely to drop the nicotine habit than those who just smoke, a new study suggests.
They studied 617 tobacco users and found no differences in quit rates for “dual users” of both traditional and electronic cigarettes.
This research adds important information to the conversation as public health and medical professionals grapple with the role vaping might play in reducing cigarette smoking, said study senior author Mary Ellen Wewers, a professor emeritus of health behavior and health promotion, and a member of Ohio State’s Center of Excellence in Tobacco Regulatory Science.
The study appears in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.