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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

E-Cigarette Use Soars Among Kentucky Teens

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Monday, December 10, 2018   

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Health groups in Kentucky say teens in the state have the wrong idea when it comes to the safety of e-cigarettes.

Ben Chandler with Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow said 1-in-5 high school students uses e-cigarettes - also called vaping. That's a 78 percent increase in the past year.

"We're worried that all of the gains that we may have been making in terms of reduction of tobacco use may be lost as a result of burgeoning e-cigarette use,” Chandler said.

At a conference on Monday in Louisville, the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow will release the results of recent teen focus-groups on e-cigarettes, which Chandler said are troubling.

"They're saying that it's not bad for you,” he said. “And they're saying that 'all their friends do it, so why shouldn't they do it?' That it is the cool thing to do."

Chandler explained the large amounts of nicotine in e-cigarettes make them very addictive, and can harm areas of the brain that control learning and impulse control. The vapor also contains chemicals and metals that can damage the lungs.

The focus group discussions suggest that many teachers and parents aren't aware kids are using e-cigarettes, which don't emit odors and are often as small as a flash drive. And Chandler noted the products are often marketed to youth.

"Flavoring of these vaping products is very attractive to young people, and flavors such as cotton candy and bubble gum are often used,” he said.

Prohibiting the sale of flavored liquids for e-cigarettes will be among the policy measures discussed at today's event, along with adding vaping to all local smoke-free ordinances. And Chandler contends there should be a specific tax on e-cigarettes.

"We had e-cigarettes included in our last effort to tax cigarette products, but the e-cigarettes were removed at the last minute from the legislation in the last session," he said. "And we don't even know why. It just disappeared."

He said he thinks state leaders and communities should also examine raising the minimum age for purchase of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.


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