As per a federal data released Thursday, use of the e-cigarettes among middle school and high school students has tripled from 2013 to 2014. Now, the share of high school students who use e-cigarettes stands at 13%.

Around 25% of all high school students and 8% of middle school students totaling 4.6 million young people had used tobacco in some form in 2014. Another revelation made in the report is that from 2011 to 2014, a major decline has come in the percentage of high school students who smoked traditional cigarettes, from 16% to 9%.

This decline could be an indication of a shift from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Currently, smoking is the biggest reason of preventable death in America. The habit takes life of more than 480,000 Americans per year.

Majority of scientists agree with the fact that e-cigarettes are less likely to be harmful than traditional cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration has been taking steps to limit e-cigarettes. But experts have been finding the process to be slow.

Many experts have even raised concerns that people are adopting at faster pace than the speed at which rules are being written. One of the reasons is that e-cigarette is new and researchers are gathering evidence with regard to long-term health effects.

In the interview, students have also affirmed that e-cigarettes are quite common in schools. One of the students shared that almost 70% of his friends now vape. A significant percentage said that they were into vaping habit, as they were quit smoking cigarettes or marijuana. Others said that they have never smoked earlier and liked to be part of the trend and enjoyed the taste.

E-cigarette use has increased exponentially in previous years and it is not a good thing, said CDC Director Tom Frieden, who noted that research has found that nicotine harms the developing brain.