By Lola Duffort, Vermont Digger, February 7, 2020

Half of all high school students in Vermont have tried electronic vapor products like e-cigarettes, up from just 30% in 2015. That’s according to results from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a study administered statewide to thousands of Vermont students every two years.

The YRBS was developed by the Centers for Disease Control in 1990 to monitor behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease and injury among young people. The survey anonymously polls middle and high school students about such topics as substance use, sexual health, and nutrition. In Vermont, over 18,000 public and private high school students participated in the latest survey.

The results also highlighted an increasingly bleak mental health picture for Vermont’s teens. Thirty-one percent of high school students reported feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in the last year that they stopped doing some usual activities. That’s up from 21% 10 years ago.

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