E-Cigarette Ads Target Millions of Kids: CDC

E-cigarette makers are spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising their products and their message is getting across, federal health officials reported Tuesday. 

Teens are vaping by the millions now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The CDC said that trend threatens to derail decades of progress in helping prevent kids from taking up smoking.

"The same advertising tactics the tobacco industry used years ago to get kids addicted to nicotine are now being used to entice a new generation of young people to use e-cigarettes," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden.

CDC said in a statement that "during 2011 to 2014, current e-cigarette use among high school students soared from 1.5 percent to 13.4 percent, and among middle school students from 0.6 percent to 3.9 percent." Spending on e-cigarette ads rose from $6.4 million to $115 million during that time, CDC noted. 

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