“Adolescents don’t think they will get addicted to nicotine, but when they do want to stop, they find it’s very difficult,” says Yale neuroscientist Marina Picciotto, PhD. Recent and past studies show that nicotine can cause physical changes in the teenage brain. – Credit: Getty Image
Yet another “Duh” piece of news that should’ve, could’ve, been addressed properly, the moment big tobacco and vape manufacturers embraced plunged in to the market, and played down its dangers.
Government regulators failed, and are still failing, to protect the public, and especially young people, from the absurdly obvious dangers of nicotine addiction. Corporate lobbyists, from tobacco, and the newly minted “Big Vape,” combined with ignorance, gullibility, and denial, by the users, who think there’s no harm enough to regulate, as they cite industry funded research, are the usual causes. Furthermore, the clueless argument about e-cigarettes helping conventional smokers actually quit tobacco, makes even less sense than giving Methadone to junkies for the last half century. Here’s a great piece on that: Methadone: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly.
As per usual, the U.S. FDA has dragged at a snail’s pace to catch up with the reality, despite warnings by the American Academy of Pediatricians, the American Lung Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous qualified studies. While the FDA will be forced to face this issue, the question remains will it be enough, or will it be more of the usual PR half steps like banning only a segment of its sales, and having schools put signs in its bathrooms. The FDA needs to step up and do its job.
For a good background on how we got here, check out the link from The Verge below from 11/16/17, The three links below it are more recent news.
Read the article from Yale Medicine