It’s concerning that among 14 states that collect data on e-cigarette use by middle schoolers, Hawaii ranks first. In this case, No. 1 is not good.

Federal data indicates that 18% of all middle schoolers here use vaping products — and of them, 30% are of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ancestry.

A $2.8 million grant has just been awarded to University of Hawaii Cancer Center researcher Scott Okamoto, to develop a school-based, culturally-grounded e-cig prevention and intervention program for Hawaii’s rural youth; it’ll build on Ho‘ouna Pono, a drug prevention curriculum. Let’s hope this’ll result in helping teens break an unhealthy habit.