Health

More and more kids are smoking e-cigarettes: study

E-cigarette use has doubled among middle- and high-school kids — and experts fear the devices are creating a new generation of smokers rather than helping people kick the habit.

With flavors like chocolate and “cherry crush” and endorsements from such celebs as Jenny McCarthy and Courtney Love, electronic cigarettes are rising in popularity among young people.

“The increased use of ­e-cigarettes by teens is deeply troubling,” said Tom Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Many teens who start with e-cigarettes may be condemned to struggling with a lifelong addiction to nicotine and conventional cigarettes.”

Ten percent of US high-schoolers admitted having tried e-cigs last year, up from 4.7 percent in 2011, according to a survey released Thursday by the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

The number of middle-school students who tried them also doubled, rising from 1.4 percent in 2011 to 2.7 percent last year.

And last year, 2.8 percent of high-schoolers said they had used them within the past 30 days, up from 1.5 percent in 2011. For middle- schoolers, the number rose from 0.6 to 1.1 percent.

“These results are alarming, but not surprising,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said, noting that the battery-powered devices, which deliver nicotine in a vapor, have been touted as a safer alternative to traditional smoking.

“The e-cigarette industry portrays itself as wanting to help solve the tobacco problem, but its marketing is reminiscent of the tobacco industry in its worst days.”

Not since the days when Joe Camel shilled cancer sticks for Big Tobacco have health officials been so concerned about young people getting hooked on smoking.

But with Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlie Sheen seen puffing the cigs in photos across the Web, who needs a cartoon mascot?

“When it comes to smoking, smelling like an ashtray is not the ideal aphrodisiac,” McCarthy says in a Web video for blu eCigs.

“There is nothing sexy about going outside in the rain or freezing your butt off just to take a puff.”