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41 Files: Vaping epidemic reaches middle school kids

Posted at 12:07 PM, Dec 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-20 13:07:03-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo — On Tuesday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the declining age of kids trying vaping products for the first time prompted him to declare the issue an “epidemic.”

In this week’s 41 Files Podcast, reporters McKenzie Nelson and Steven Dial recap conversations they’ve had with area educators, health policy experts and electronic cigarette retailers and found there are no easy answers to battle the epidemic.

In those conversations, they learned educators have had to move up curriculums teaching about the dangers of vaping from high school to middle school, now that the average age of kids trying nicotine for the first time is 12 years old.