Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes are being marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, but while the jury is still out about the safety of these products, studies show they may help smokers quit. However, e-cigarettes make smoking appealing to children and in fact, the findings from the National Youth Tobacco Survey suggest that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students is on the rise.
Even more alarming is that the CDC reports that exposure to e-cigarette cartridgesamong children as young as five is on the rise as well. The cartridges are not required to have a childproof lock and often come in candy and fruit flavors that appeal to children. Children poison themselves by eating the flavored cartridges. Indeed, the number of calls to poison centers involving e-cigarette liquids containing nicotine rose from one per month in September of 2010 for two hundred fifteen per month in February 2014.