E-cigarettes send young kids to Utah hospitals

The American Lung Association is calling on President Obama to order the FDA to regulate electronic cigarettes as a tobacco product. Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — According to the Utah Poison Control Center, the number of children under the age of 6 who have been sent to Utah hospitals after using electronic cigarettes is on the rise.

The center says e-cigarettes have sent 79 young children to hospitals since January 2012. There were 10 such poisoning cases in 2012, 48 last year and 21 this year so far.

Center spokesman Marty Malheiro told KTVX-TV that Utah this year already has seen about half as many as all of last year’s calls and it’s not even three months into the year.

Aaron Frazier of the Utah Vapers Association says e-cigarettes need to be treated the same as all medicine and parents must keep them up high and out of reach to children.

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