NEW YORK (AP) – Cigarette smoking rates have stopped falling among U.S. kids, and health officials believe youth vaping is responsible.
A new report released Monday says for the past three years, there has been no decline in the percentage of high school and middle school students smoking cigarettes.
It had been dropping fairly steadily for decades.
Officials say there could be several reasons for the stall, but that a recent boom in vaping is the most likely explanation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention findings come from a national survey conducted last spring of more than 20,000 middle and high school students. It asked if they had used any tobacco products in the previous month. Some of the findings had been released before, including a boom among students who vaped.
