Health officials: Raise the smoking age

This new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) insists that young football simply need to be educated and coached on proper tackling technique and, whenever it is possible, be guided by certified athletic trainers at both practice and games.

Apart from calling for FDA control of e-cigarettes, the AAP have also recommended that smoke-free laws expand to include e-cigarettes.

Another policy recommendation aimed at reducing adolescents’ attraction to smoking, using hookah pipes or “vaping” (the term for using e-cigarettes), would outlaw all flavors used in tobacco or nicotine products, including menthol in cigarettes and the various flavors in e-cigarettes.

To reduce the number of young people who begin to smoke or use other tobacco products, the AAP also recommended regulations that will increase prices on tobacco products.

One mom told NewsChannel 9 she was shocked to learn that her son, a 6th-grade student, knew what e-cigarettes were. Though the negative effects of smoking are well-known, over 50 percent of current smokers admit they started smoking before they were 18-years-old, and with the introduction of e-cigarettes, tween and teen smokers has tripled within the span of a single year.

A new paper in the Journal of Environmental Analytical Chemistry states next generation “heated” tobacco devices – confusing to the public because heating nicotine vapor is the mechanism behind e-cigarette devices – produce side-stream emissions similar to secondhand cigarette smoke. “Thus, slightly older young adults may choose to forgo tobacco products”.

The American Association of Pediatrics is urging the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes like it does other tobacco products, which includes age restrictions, taxes, advertising bans and child restraint packaging.

“We’re trying to bring the evidence to the decision-making process as opposed to simply emotion and anecdote”, lead author William P. Meehan III, MD, director of the Medical Center for Sports injury Prevention, Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, said in an AAP news release.

“Tobacco use continues to be a major health threat to children, adolescents and adults”.

The height of these concerns focus on the growing popularity of e-cigarettes among teens. “We also worry about the other ingredients in e-cigarettes”.

The message from pediatricians is clear: Tobacco threatens children’s health.

Nearly 30 million children and adolescents in the U.S. take part in sports, with football being one of the most popular; around 28% of children aged 5-14 play the game, and there are more than 1.1 million high school football players in the US.