While use of cigarettes, alcohol and abuse of pain relievers among US teenagers has declined since 2013, use of e-cigarettes has gone up considerably, a survey says.
Released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey found that the use of smoked marijuana remained steady among teenagers.
Measured for the first time, the use of e-cigarettes was found high among school-going children.
"Past-month use by eighth graders is 8.7 percent, for 10th graders is 16.2 percent, and for 12th graders is 17.1 percent," the findings showed.
"Despite the positive developments this year, we are concerned about the levels of e-cigarette use among teenagers that we are seeing," said Lloyd D Johnston, principal researcher from the institute for social research at University of Michigan.
"It would be a tragedy if this product undid some of the great progress made to date in reducing cigarette smoking by teenagers," he said.
The results are a part of an overall two-decade trend among the nation's youth.
The MTF survey measures drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th and 12th graders was conducted by researchers at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
