So. Utah Kids Are Choosing Vaping At Alarming Rate

Smoking cigarettes have finally, at long last, become kind of uncool.

Unfortunately, vaping is filling that void.

The percentage of cigarette smokers in America is down to its lowest ever at just over 10 percent. While that number is still way too high (you know, considering it causes cancer and heart disease), officials are encouraged by the downward trend.

Long gone are the days when Hollywood stars were smoking on screen and shilling endorsements for the cancer sticks.

But sadly, vaping has slid into the vacant spot when it comes to the coolness factor.

"It's easy, plus kind of cool when you carry around a vape pen," said one local high school student. "And there's no religious component in my mind. I think I'm just fine to vape. I'm not smoking."

Southern Utah Public Health Director Dr. David Blodgett said that vaping may be better than smoking when it comes to health, but only just barely.

Blodgett, appearing on the Andy Griffin Show, also said there is a component to vaping that makes it much worse.

"One of the things I'm most worried about with vapes is they become this perfect vehicle for delivering all kinds of thing," Blodgett said. "The numbers are pretty stable for how many kids are taking up vaping for nicotine.

:"Where it's becoming really a problem is the other stuff in there -- marijuana and stuff like that. Guys in the ER will tell you all kinds of crazy stuff ends up in those vape pens -- lighter fluid or whatever -- and they're inhaling it."

Just two years ago there were a little over 400 vape products in the marketplace. Now, there are nearly 10 times that number.

And although Utah and other states have targeted "flavored" vapes that seem to really entice school-age children, sales remain strong in the e-cig or vape industry.

According to the Centers For Disease Control, e-cigarettes are now the No. 1 choice for tobacco delivery in America, far out-pacing tobacco pouches and traditional cigarettes. Here's the list of kid's tobacco choices:

E-Cigarettes (5.9%)
Nicotine Pouches (1.8%)
Cigarettes (1.4%)
Cigars (1.2%)
Smokeless Tobacco (1.2%)
Other Oral Nicotine Products (1.2%)
Heated Tobacco Products (0.8%)
Hookahs (0.7%)
Pipe Tobacco (0.5%)

About 10.1 percent of all high school students use tobacco (that equates to 1.58 million youth tobacco users in our country).

In Southern Utah, that number is slightly lower, but Washington County school officials say they are still seeing plenty of evidence of tobacco use in their schools.

So the new "cool" is vaping for young people and while most doctors say it is better than smoking, it certainly will cause lung cancer, heart disease and the like.

After all, being cool always has a cost.