If love yourself an e-cigarette, it may be time to reconsider using them around young children.
It’s very well-established that tobacco exposure can be harmful to kids. However, following the FDA’s regulatory announcement last Thursday, the journal Pediatrics published a new study that shows that e-cigarettes are also responsible for making increasingly more young children sick.
The longitudinal study reviewed calls placed to poison control centers nationwide between January 2012 and April 2015, and specifically involved children aged 6 or younger being exposed to nicotine or tobacco products. According to researchers, the most concerning statistics they found were about e-cigarettes.
These calls involved kids who got sick by swallowing liquid nicotine, inhaling smoke or even doing as little as touching an e-cigarette. Remember that liquid nicotine CAN be absorbed by the skin (that’s how nicotine patches work) and so even minor contact with the substance can be harmful to kids.
Here are some of the more alarming statistics to come out of this study:
- The majority of the children involved in these calls were 2 years old or younger.
- At the beginning of the study in January 2012, there were 14 calls per month about a kid getting sick from an e-cigarette; by the end of the study in April 2015, the number jumped up to 223 calls per month.
- E-cigarette poisoning made up about 14 percent of the 30,000 calls received regarding a child who was exposed to nicotine or tobacco products.
If you have an e-cigarette, the study’s researchers advise that you treat it like any other medication or toxin you have in your house and either keep it locked up or put it on a high shelf that kids can’t reach.
Feel free to read the Associated Press’ article to learn more about the study’s findings.
*This blog post is for general informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be providing medical advice and is not a substitute for such advice. The reader should always consult a health care provider concerning any medical condition or treatment plan. NeitherCare.com nor the author assumes any responsibility or liability with respect to use of any information contained herein.
