CHICAGO, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The use of electronic cigarettes has increased by 65 percent among sophomores and 45 percent among seniors in Illinois high schools over the past two years, the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey showed.
About 18 percent of 10th-grade students reported smoking e-cigarettes during the prior month, compared with slightly more than 11 percent of these students in 2016, according to the survey.
Among high school seniors, e-cigarette use surged to nearly 27 percent, up from slightly more than 18 percent two years ago. E-cigarette smoking among eighth-graders also increased from 6.4 percent to 7.4 percent over the last two years, the survey found.
More than 11,200 teens participated in the 2018 survey.
"Our survey rarely registers increases of this magnitude among any of our measures of illicit youth substance use," said Scott Hays, a senior research scientist at the University of Illinois Center for Prevention Research and Development, which conducts the survey.
The upward trend in e-cigarette smoking is introducing new users to the habit, dramatically increasing the number of young people who become smokers, Hays said.
In a statement released last month, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb called the increase in e-cigarette smoking among the nation's youth an epidemic and announced that the FDA was stepping up its enforcement efforts against retailers and online vendors that illegally sell tobacco products to minors.
Gottlieb also indicated that the FDA would launch a nationwide campaign warning teens of the dangers of e-cigarette and nicotine use.
