Even though cigarette and cigar smoking among teenagers has declined in the last few years, bad habits concerning nicotine have been handed down to the next generation in the form of electronic cigarettes.

Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that as traditional forms of smoking have declined, the decrease has been offset by the rising use of electronic cigarette.

Electronic cigarettes, commonly referred to as e-cigarettes, are portable devices filled with liquid nicotine, and their use has increased among high school students.

According to the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 4.5 percent of teens reported using e-cigarettes in 2013 and the number increased to 13.4 percent in 2014.

Senior Seth Hixenbaugh, 18, has used e-cigarettes in the past.

“It’s just kind of the fashion,” Hixenbaugh said. “Everyone is doing it.”

A majority of the e-cigarettes have nicotine in them and can still cause the same effects as cigarettes.

Mrs. Amy Graham, health teacher, knows the effects nicotine can have on the body.

“Major effects of nicotine include addiction, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, reduced circulation in hands and feet, and constriction of blood vessels,” Graham said. “The effects can lead to an increased chance of heart disease.”

E-cigarettes have become an issue of popularity. Rather than trying to break the addiction, people are feeding it.

“They were first created as a way to get people to stop smoking. I believe the reverse is happening,” Graham said. “Most people are starting to smoke because of the coolness of the e-cigarettes.”

E-cigarettes are only legally sold to people 18 years and older because of the nicotine in them.

While the use of e-cigarettes has increased among the high school students across the nation, assistant principal Matt Moore said the use on school property has decreased.

“It was worse last year,” Moore said. “I haven’t caught many kids this year. I don’t think they have stopped though.”

Regardless of being underage, teenagers are able to obtain e-cigarettes.

Junior Neil Kagerer said that he has witnessed some of his peers using e-cigarettes.

“I started seeing it in 10th grade, and it’s gotten worse this year,” Kagerer said. “It has just become more public now.”

What Kagerer has seen is also what Mr. Mitch Zeller has seen.

Zeller, who directs the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release that e-cigarettes have been reversing a decline in teenage smoking, which is a public health problem.

“In today’s rapidly evolving tobacco marketplace, the surge in youth use of novel products like e-cigarettes forces us to confront the reality that the progress we have made in reducing youth cigarette smoking rates is being threatened,” Zeller said. “These staggering increases in such a short time underscore why FDA intends to regulate these additional products to protect public health.”

The featured image is from flickr.