BRUNSWICK

While substance abuse appears to be dropping among students at southern Midcoast schools, the Access Health Community Health Coalition said the group is now concerned about electronic cigarette devices.

Melissa Fochesato, director of community health promotion at Mid Coast Hospital, said the 2017 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey showed that 33 percent of high school students have tried an electronic vapor device and 13 percent in the past 30 days. Only 27 percent thought the device contained nicotine.

Another 9.5 percent of middle school students have tried an electronic device, 10 percent in the past 30 days. Only 11 percent thought it contained nicotine.

“We’ve done a lot of parent awareness, school and youth awareness that this is not a safe device,” Fochesato said.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that nearly 70 percent of “middle and high school students were exposed to e-cigarette advertisements in retail stores, on the internet, in magazines/newspapers, or on TV/movies.”

“Exposure to e-cigarette advertisements may be contributing to increases in e-cigarette use among youth,” the CDC states on its website. “Efforts by states, communities and others could reduce this exposure.”

The CDC also notes that while they have the potential to benefit adult smokers by serving as a complete substitute for regular cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products, “e-cigarettes are not safe for youth, young adults, pregnant women, or adults who do not currently use tobacco products.”

“We don’t know what that’s doing to their lungs, especially young lungs, and that’s a higher nicotine hit,” Fochesato said, also noting the harmful effects of second-hand inhalation of the e-cigarettes’ vapor cloud.