A researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center was awarded nearly three million dollars to develop and evaluate school based, culturally-grounded e cigarette prevention intervention for youth who live in rural parts of the state. Kauai Now News reports Scott Okamoto will receiver 2.8 million from the National Institute on Drug abuse to develop the plan. Recent CDC data indicates that 18% of all middle school youth in Hawai‘i use an electronic vapor product, ranking first among 14 states collecting this data. Of these youth, 30% are of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ancestry, representing the highest percentage of e-cigarette users among major ethnic groups in the islands.
