Healthy Living: tobacco and vaping use among teens could enable the spread of COVID-19

In looking back on 2020, tobacco use among teens was down which is good for two reasons.

One, it is linked to cancer, COPD, heart disease, and stroke. Two, it could be linked to spreading COVID-19.

A new CDC report says tobacco use declined among middle and high schoolers from 2019 to 2020. Still, about one in four high school students are current tobacco users with electronic cigarettes being the most commonly used among middle and high school students.

There’s a recent law in Pennsylvania, raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21-years-old. The hope is it will limit a student’s access to these products, something that could also minimize the spread of COVID-19.

Doctors point out that users smoking tobacco through an e-cigarette, cigar, cigarette, or hookah, have to take off their masks, and often, they share the products with each other.

Research reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health also found that COVID-19 was five times more likely in young people who used e-cigarettes.

Doctors warn that anyone, any age, using tobacco products should be aware of the risk of more severe diseases and in regards to the coronavirus, using tobacco can damage the lungs which could make recovery more difficult.