Photo ©iStock/Neuevector/A study of high school students found that one in four teens reported using e-cigarettes for “dripping,” a practice in which users produce and inhale vapors by placing drops of e-liquids directly onto heated atomizer coils. In a survey of 1,080 Connecticut high school students who used e-cigarettes, 26.1 percent of students reported this behavior. The survey found students engaged in dripping to produce thicker clouds of vapor (63.5%), improve flavors (38.7%), and produce a stronger throat hit (27.7%). The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.
The authors emphasize that more research is needed about the potential risks of this practice and recommend future safety studies be conducted on the toxicities of hot vapors produced by this method of exposing of e-liquids to high temperatures. The authors also encouraged the development of prevention programs to educate youth about the potential risks of these alternative e-cigarette use behaviors.
For a copy of the paper — “E-Cigarettes and “Dripping” Among High-School Youth”— published in Pediatrics, go to: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/02/02/peds.2016-3224
For information about e-cigarettes, go to: www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/electronic-cigarettes-e-cigarettes