Just days after the US city of Chicago took eight online retailers to court for illegally selling e-cigarettes to underage residents, federal agencies confirmed astonishing increases in nationwide youth use of e-cigarettes.

According to the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released on Thursday by US Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention , about 3.6 million of US middle and high school students are currently using e-cigarettes, about 1.5 million more than a year before.
From 2017 to 2018, there was a 78 per cent increase in current e-cigarette use among high school students and a 48 percent increase among middle school students.

In an open letter issued by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, he described youth use of e-cigarettes as an “epidemic.” “These increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes,” he wrote.

US federal agencies now plan to prohibit the sale of sweet-flavoured electronic cigarette liquid at convenience stores and gas stations. Vaping products, including e-liquids, may now be sold only in stores that can verify the age of customers. They may be sold online only when there is more stringent age verification.

E-cigarettes are devices that heat a liquid into an aerosol the user inhales. The liquid usually has nicotine and flavouring in it, and other additives.