A study by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine has revealed that one in four Connecticut High School students has used an e-cigarette. Even more students say they arelikely to try the product at some point in the future. It’s good to see so many intelligentstudents making the decision to try the healthier e-cigarettes rather than the deadly tobaccocigarettes.Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale and the lead author ofthe study says: "We were surprised so many kids were using these products." Students atfour high schools and two middle schools in south-eastern Connecticut were surveyed inNovember 2013 as part of the study. Of middle schoolers, 84.3% had heard of e-cigarettesbut only 3.5% had tried one though 26.4% said they were likely to do so in the future. Only1.5% of the middle school students said they’d used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days so it’shardly something for health officials to get worried about is it? 92% of high school studentshad heard of e-cigarettes and 25.2% had tried them in the past with 31.7% likely to try one inthe future. Only 12% had used one in the past 30 days.Yet Krishnan-Sarin still finds the survey results “troubling” because many youths surveyedsaid they didn’t know e-cigarettes contained nicotine.” Get ready for the P word everyonebecause she believes e-cigarettes could lead to a “pathway to nicotine dependence” for anew generation. I wonder if she mentioned to the students the fact that at least with e-cigarettes you can vary the level of nicotine and if you want, not have any at all.Now one of the criticisms that is usually thrown in the direction of the e-cigarette industry isthat they market the product to under-18s. Without realising it the survey shoots itself in itsfoot with the following results.Almost half of high school students and nearly 40% of middle school students said they hadbeen given e-cigarettes by a friend. That’s nothing to do with the e-cigarette industry is it?Only about 15% of high schoolers said they had purchased e-cigarettes from a tobaccoshop, Nearly 10% said they had purchased their e-cigarettes from gas stations. Note theydidn’t say a specialist vaping store.Max Young, one of the owners of the White Buffalo e-cigarette lounge in New Haven, saysthat his shop does not sell to minors and has a rule in place that you must be at last 18 yearsold to enter.Time for the F word folks because, the study states that the many different flavors availableare attracting children. It also complains about the fact that gas stations display e-cigaretteadverts that can be seen by children. Then again if a child walks down town just think howmany adverts they’ll see for adult products and no one is complaining about that.Phil Brewer, a medical doctor and the director for student health services at QuinnipiacUniversity, said: They have come up with these flavors that are very clearly designed toattract children," Brewer said. "Can you see some 45-year-old carpenter sucking on a CherryBerry e-cigarette?"Max Young says that his customers include people of all ages and that many oldercustomers tell him they are using e-cigarettes to wean themselves off of conventionalcigarettes. The flavored e-cigarettes help them in their difficult task. "This is a healthieralternative that's way cheaper" than regular cigarettes, Young added. I couldn’t agree more.