The most recent Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP) found that nearly 3 in 10 Kentucky adults reported ever using e-cigarettes (28 percent). The rate is higher than national statistics, where just over 2 in 10 adults (22 percent) reported ever using e-cigarettes.
Responses varied by age. Highest reported use was among young adults ages 18 to 29 where nearly half (48 percent) said they had ever used an e-cigarette. Older Kentucky adults were less likely than young adults to report e-cigarette use.
Rates of e-cigarette use reported by Northern Kentucky adults were about the same as the state as a whole. Just over 3 in 10 (32.5%) in Northern Kentucky said they had ever used an e-cigarette.
Interact for Health and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky sponsored the poll. KHIP described the difference between e-cigarettes – battery-powered devices used to inhale vaporized liquid — and smoking before asking recipients if they had tried an e-cigarette.
“Interact for Health is focused on improving the health of our community, and a key to that is reducing the use of all types of tobacco,” says O’dell Moreno Owens, M.D., M.P.H., President/CEO of Interact for Health. “We are concerned by the high percentage of young adults who are trying e-cigarettes, when emerging evidence shows that when non-smokers use e-cigarettes it increases their risk of eventually smoking traditional cigarettes.”
KHIP asked Kentucky adults who reported using e-cigarettes about how often they used them. More than 6 in 10 (62 percent) current cigarette smokers reported ever using e-cigarettes. More than 1 in 10 current cigarette smokers reported using e-cigarettes some days or every day (14 percent).
Opinions on Aerosol’s Harm to Children Differ by E-cigarette Use
When people use e-cigarettes, they exhale aerosol. About 5 in 10 (51 percent) Kentucky adults said they believe aerosol from e-cigarettes caused little or some harm to children who breathed the aerosol. Nearly 3 in 10 said it caused a lot of harm (27 percent). One in 10 said it caused no harm (10 percent) and about 1 in 10 said they did not know (11 percent).
Adults in Northern Kentucky were more likely than in the state to believe aerosol from e-cigarettes caused little or some harm (60%), and less likely to believe they caused a lot of harm (22%).
Opinions differed between those who had tried e-cigarettes and those who had not. Kentucky adults who had not tried e-cigarettes were more likely to report a lot of harm to children from the aerosol (31 percent) than adults who had tried e-cigarettes (17 percent).
Fourteen Kentucky Communities offer Protection from E-cigarette Aerosol
Currently only about one-third of Kentuckians are covered by comprehensive indoor smoke-free workplace ordinances. Among the comprehensive laws in 26 communities, 14 also cover e-cigarettes.
“Kentucky laws leave a large number of residents unprotected from tobacco smoke and e-cigarette aerosol,” says Megan Folkerth, Program Officer, Interact for Health. “Our research shows there is consistent and strong support for making a change to a comprehensive smoke-free law in Kentucky, which includes e-cigarettes.”
More information about Kentuckians’ experiences and beliefs about e-cigarettes and other topics is available at the website.
