Liquid nicotine exposures up sharply among kids

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Poison control workers say that as the e-cigarette industry has boomed, the number of children exposed to the liquid nicotine that gives hand-held vaporizing gadgets their kick also has spiked.<br /> <br /> More than 2,700 people have called poison control this year to report an exposure to liquid nicotine, over half of those cases in children younger than 6, according to national statistics. The number shows a sharp rise from only a few hundred total cases just three years ago.<br /> <br /> The battery-powered electronic vaporizers often resemble traditional cigarettes and work by heating liquid nicotine into an inhalable mist. The drug comes in brightly colored refill packages and an array of candy flavors that can make it attractive to young children, heightening the exposure risk and highlighting the need for users to keep it away from youngsters.<br /> <br /> "With kids, the exposure we're seeing is usually parents or family members leave out refill bottles that they try and open," said Ashley Webb, director of the Kentucky Regional Poison Control Center.<br /> <br /> Poison control workers often see a spike in calls with new and growing products, Webb said. The number of e-cigarette users has climbed to several million worldwide, and the devices have become the center of an industry that has grown in the last four years from about $82 million to $2.5 billion in annual sales, at least $500 million of which comes from liquid nicotine.<br /> <br /> Despite the recent increase, liquid nicotine exposures are still less than half of traditional cigarettes, but e-juice is potentially more toxic, said Robert Bassett, a medical toxicologist in Philadelphia.

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