According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual youth tobacco survey, the use of electronic cigarettes has tripled among middle and high school students in the last year.

E-cigs, which create a nicotine vapor to inhale, came on the market in 2006 and are more popular among the youth than conventional cigarettes. According to the survey, 2.5 million teenagers are using e-cigarettes.

Of the high school students surveyed, 13 percent said they’d tried e-cigs, whereas 9 percent said they’d been using traditional cigarettes–a sharp decline from the years past.

Although they are a safer alternative to tobacco, electronic cigarettes still pose a potential threat to one’s health, and, thus, raise the question: are they really worth it?

by Michael Zhang’17