It's no secret that vaping is on the rise among California teens.
Now, a team of USC researchers has delved deeper into the trend to try to understand how much high school students' social environment has to do with the uptick in electronic cigarette use -- and what it all might mean for the future of traditional cigarette use, which has been in steady decline, as well.
The concern? That widespread "favorable social perceptions" about vaping among members of a new generation might "contribute to the renormalization of tobacco products generally," wrote Keck School of Medicine postdoctoral researcher Jessica L.