Poison control centers across the United States are seeing calls for kids ingesting discarded cigarette butts or chewing tobacco decline, but new research shows they’re grabbing vape pens instead. Rutgers Health researchers have found that while cases of traditional nicotine exposure among kids are down, incidents involving e-cigarettes have increased 243% over the past eight years. The research suggests the risk of nicotine poisoning hasn’t gone away; it’s just evolved along with nicotine products themselves.
“What it should raise people’s attention to is these newer products, which are constantly evolving to be enticing to consumers, are also enticing to children, and they are still on the rise,” said Dr. Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For the study, researchers used the National Poison Data System to analyze more than 92,000 reported nicotine exposures in children ages 5 and younger between 2016 and 2023. To read the full story.