MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- The American Heart Association has joined the chorus of those encouraging the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes and a Tennessee researcher is leading the charge.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center Cardiologist Rose Marie Robertson is the Heart Association’s lead scientist. She says the advocacy group is especially concerned about the impact the new electronic cigarettes are having on young people.
“We know now from a study that was just released from the CDC that a quarter-of-a-million young people have started smoking these cigarettes and are getting addicted to nicotine and we think that’s not a good direction for the country to go in.”
Robertson says recent studies also suggest that while many young people experiment with smoking, most quit within a few years. However, she says the majority of teens who start using e-cigs eventually graduate to smoking.
The AHA is calling for more studyon the long term health effects of e-cigs, and for their regulation by the FDA.