OTO: Electronic Cigarettes: A Primer for Clinicians

This podcast highlights a state of the art review published in the July 2015 issue of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, the official journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Foundation. Editor in chief John Krouse is joined by senior author Ryan Bransky and associate editor Cristina Baldassari in discussing the growing use of electronic cigarettes in the United States.  Over the past decade there has been a rapid expansion in the use of and types of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, among the US population.  In 2009 less than 1% of the American population had tried using e-cigarettes, and by 2013 over 8% of Americans had used them.  The sales of e-cigarettes are predicted to surpass $10 billion by 2017.  There has also been a rapid expansion in use among teenagers, who enter the use of oral nicotine in early life as their first cigarette experience through “vaping.”  There are establishments that are dedicated to the use of these products, and this use is currently unregulated.  Drs. Bransky and Baldassari discuss the implications of this rapid growth in electronic cigarettes, especially among children during their school-age years, and look at the range of potential concerns for both present and future use. Click here to read the full article.