Lauren Dempsey, MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN, FISM News
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The most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) shows that more than 2.5 million students in middle and high school vape or use e-cigarettes despite the known dangers that have been associated with these products.
According to the survey, which was conducted from January 18 through May 31, 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students used these nicotine-delivery devices at least once over the past 30 days. Last year, the same survey showed that 11.3% of high school and 2.8% of middle school students reported past-month vaping. However, federal officials said survey changes make it difficult to compare this year’s survey to prior years.
The survey was created to collect long-term data on tobacco use in adolescents and to implement and evaluate tobacco prevention and control programs.
Another alarming statistic from the survey is that 85% of teen vapers said they used flavored e-cigarettes and more than half used disposable e-cigarettes. While they may have a favorite brand, it really comes down to favorite flavors. Teens report using flavored products such as fruit, candy/desserts/other sweets, mint, and menthol reported as the most popular flavors.
Almost 40% of teen users reported frequent use and about 25% reported vaping daily.
Dennis Henigan, vice president for legal and regulatory affairs of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a nonprofit that works to reduce tobacco use, said “Flavored products have driven this epidemic from the beginning,” adding that “kids will move to whatever brands are still available in the flavors that they like.”
Anti-tobacco groups find it irresponsible that federal regulators have not done more to eliminate flavored vaping products among teens. Matthew L. Myers, president and co-founder of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said in a statement that “It is unacceptable that over 2.5 million kids still use e-cigarettes when there is a clear solution to the problem — eliminate all flavored e-cigarettes.”
Myers pointedly called out the FDA saying that the agency “has repeatedly failed to act and left our nation’s kids at risk,” and he adds that the FDA should use its authority to eliminate all e-cigarette use “because none have been authorized by the FDA, all flavored e-cigarettes now for sale are illegal and subject to FDA enforcement action to remove them from the market.”
Federal agencies have been sounding the alarm on flavored e-cigarettes, which seem to appeal to underage users, and while the number of overall users is significantly less than in previous years, American teens continue to vape.
Since 2016, the FDA has issued thousands of warning letters to retailers for sales of e-cigarettes and their components to minors. In September 2018, in the largest coordinated enforcement effort in the agency’s history, the agency issued more than 1,100 warning letters and initiated 131civil money penalty complaints to retailers who sold these products to minors.
The FDA also continues to provide regular guidance as well as promote prevention campaigns to ensure that teens do not have the same access to these products that adults do.
The CDC warns that the use of e-cigarettes is unsafe for adolescents because many of them contain nicotine and other harmful substances and it increases the likelihood of cigarette smoking in the future. A study from the agency found that 99% of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which changes the way the brain forms synapses and can damage parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control.
While vaping may be less harmful than smoking cigarettes, it is still not recommended. Additionally, due to the relative newness of vaping technologies, the long-term effects on the body are not known. It can take decades to develop lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. E-cigarettes and vaping products have not been around for decades. Therefore, we simply don’t know what the future will bring for those who choose to vape.