Growing Trend Of Vaping Among American Teenagers; Trump Threatens China With $100 Billion In New Tariffs
GREGORY: There is a very serious health story around the country that doesn't get enough attention with all the political news, an epidemic among middle school and high school students known as vaping. These same kids who would not smoke cigarettes are turning to e- cigarettes, commonly known by the brand-name JUUL, to vape. It's having serious consequences, particularly with regard to addiction to tobacco and nicotine among these kids. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Milford, Connecticut, high school principal Francis Thompson is desperately trying to snuff out a problem that teachers are having all across the country.</s>FRANCIS THOMPSON, PRINCIPAL, JONATHAN LAW HIGH SCHOOL, MILFORD, CONNECTICUT: They would come in here and you'd have four or five kids at a time congregating and they'd start to vape.</s>GUPTA: It's a trend that many parents are not even aware of, but e- cigarette use or vaping has grown an astonishing 900 percent among high school students in recent years according to the Surgeon General. And a 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey found nearly 1.7 million high school students and 500,000 middle-schoolers have used e-cigarettes in just the 30-day period before the survey was taken. In Wrentham, Massachusetts, assistant vice principal Spencer Christie says he, too, is overwhelmed by this new and pervasive epidemic.</s>SPENCER CHRISTIE, ASSISTANT VICE PRINCIPAL, KING PHILIP REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, WRENTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS: These are JUUL pods. Now it's moved to students vaping in hallways, vaping in classrooms.</s>JENNIFER WALDEN, TEACHER, KING PHILIP REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, WRENTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS: In the back two desks in the corner they had their hands kind of up like this and there was a blue light coming from between their hands.</s>THOMPSON: The most popular item, which is the JUUL, and as you can see it looks like a flashlight but it's not. And then, the kids can just tuck it away when they're done. So --</s>GUPTA: It's not just the design of these products. Critics say all these flavors also entice kids to start vaping. One study out of Harvard found some of these artificial flavors contain diacetyl. That's a chemical linked to severe respiratory disease.</s>THOMPSON: The kids that I talk to believe that there is nothing in there that's dangerous. They don't think there's anything more than water.</s>GUPTA: It's not water. It's called e-liquid and when heated by the coil it changes to an aerosol. Columbia University researchers, using this machine, found the vapor has toxic metals like chromium, nickel, zinc, and lead. And as we know, there is no safe level of lead. With very little regulation, people are not fully aware of what they're consuming. I sat down with the FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, and asked him about this e-cig phenomenon.</s>DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: Youth use is deeply concerning to me. We're going to be taking some enforcement actions very soon to target companies that we think are marketing products in ways that they are deliberately appealing to kids. I'm going to be having conversations with some of these companies trying to inspire them, if I can, to take more corrective actions on their own.</s>GUPTA: Don't forget, nicotine is one of the most addictive substances out there.</s>THOMPSON: I think it's the next epidemic among teenagers.</s>GREGORY: Sanjay, thank you for turning your attention to this. It is a hideous problem. These tobacco companies --</s>GUPTA: Yes.</s>GREGORY: -- as you point out, are marketing this to kids by having those flavored pods. That's outrageous when they say what they're really trying to do is help smokers try to cut down on smoking. To get to the heart of it is --</s>GUPTA: Yes.</s>GREGORY: Not only is this so easily undetectable but it is the gateway, right? I mean, it is the getting -- if you smoke a JUUL -- if you -- one pod is the equivalent to two packs of cigarettes in terms of the nicotine delivery. What is the impact on getting kids hooked on nicotine and then where does it go from there?</s>GUPTA: That is the exact rub. I mean, you know, if you talk to experts within the government they're saying look, there may be some evidence that it has decreased smoking among adults. If you remember, it was marketed as a smoking cessation tool but you've seen these staggering numbers -- a 900 percent increase among youth. We know that among youth, combustible cigarette consumption has gone down. But of the new cigarette smokers who are smoking actual cigarettes, a quarter of them, roughly, start off by using e-cigs --</s>GREGORY: Right.</s>GUPTA: -- so there does appear to be that sort of gateway thing. It may have had an impact on adults but now we're paying the price with regard to youth. That's the real concern.</s>CAMEROTA: But, Sanjay, just so I understand because my kids haven't encountered this yet -- God willing, they won't -- but is it the same as when teenagers smoked in the seventies, and eighties, and nineties? Or is vaping, somehow because of all the metals that you talked about, somehow worse?</s>GUPTA: Well, it's -- you know, this is a totally unregulated thing. Amazingly, cigarette smoking has been totally unregulated as well. Now they're talking about putting upper limits on the amount of nicotine in regular cigarettes. But with this, there's -- with these e-vape -- e-cigarettes -- vaping, they think there's all these other substances in there and we just don't know what they're going to do to the body long-term.</s>GREGORY: Including pot. I mean, that's the point is that there are ways to get pots that have the THC content in there and they get high from the nicotine --</s>GUPTA: That's right.</s>GREGORY: -- because it's so concentrated.</s>GUPTA: That's right.</s>CAMEROTA: Sanjay, thank you for sounding the alarm about all of that.</s>GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: A really important story. All right, time for "CNN Money Now." President Trump is threatening steep new tariffs on China as the White House prepares for the release of the March jobs report. Alison Kosik is here with more. Hi, Alison.</s>ALISON KOSIK, CORRESPONDENT, "CNN MONEY": Hi, Alisyn. So fears of a trade war are rattling investors yet again and that's after President Trump threatened China with $100 billion worth of new tariffs. We're watching the Dow. It's set to fall about 250 points at the open and that's actually off the lows. Dow futures tanked 400 points initially. So some investors are really hoping that the threats we're hearing are just a negotiating ploy that won't actually result in a full-blown trade war. The March jobs report could also add more volatility today. Economists are predicting 185,000 jobs were created. That's a slowdown from February. Still, it would mark the 90th-straight month of job creation, a historic run of 7 1/2 years. The jobless rate could also dip to four percent. That's a fresh 17- year low. Wall Street also watching how fast wages grew. Two point seven percent is the prediction. Anything stronger could raise fears of inflation and higher interest rates -- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, thank you very much.</s>GREGORY: So, the focus at the AT&T-Time Warner merger court battle with the Justice Department turning to another media merger. How a past deal is playing a big role in this case, coming up next.