More than 2 million US teens say they use e-cigarettes, with a quarter of them saying they vape daily, a new national survey finds.
Even with many middle and high school students home because of the pandemic, the survey found, they found ways to get hold of e-cigarettes and other vape devices and use them.
The US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey middle school and high school students every year for the National Youth Tobacco Survey. Because of the pandemic, this year’s results cannot be compared to previous years.
“Approximately 2.06 million youths were estimated to be current e-cigarette users in 2021. Use of tobacco products by youths in any form, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, and nicotine exposure during adolescence can harm the developing brain,” the FDA and CDC said in their report, published in the CDC’s weekly MMWR report.
“Notably, when many students were in remote learning environments that might have affected their access to tobacco products, an estimated 11.3% (1.72 million) of high school students and an estimated 2.8% (320,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use,” the FDA and CDC said in a joint statement.
About 85% of the students said they used flavored vapes, especially fruit, candy, mint and menthol flavors. Anti-tobacco groups have been pressing the FDA to ban all flavored vape products.
“FDA is aware of a number of companies, such as Puff Bar, claiming their products contain only synthetic nicotine not sourced from tobacco, which may raise separate regulatory and legal issues that the agency is considering how best to address,” the agency said.
“The number one brand used by youth, Puff Bar, not only comes in a wide variety of flavors, but has also recently indicated that it will now be manufactured with synthetic nicotine in a brazen attempt to thwart FDA oversight,” Robin Koval, CEO of the Truth Initiative, said in a statement.
The FDA has delayed making a decision on how to regulate many vape products. E-cigarette products have been allowed to remain on the market for years, even though none have been given the official green light by the FDA. Manufacturers were given until September 9 of last year to submit applications for the agency’s authorization to remain on the market.
Earlier this month, the FDA said it had rejected pre-market applications from more than 6 million electronic nicotine delivery systems or ENDS products, but made no ruling on big players such as Juul.
E-cigarettes were not subject to FDA regulation until 2016. They were in regulatory limbo after that until July 2019, when a federal court gave companies until May of 2020 to apply to FDA for premarket review.
The FDA is still reviewing some of those applications.
“Flavored tobacco products of all kinds, including those flavored with menthol, enable the tobacco industry to entice and hook another generation of users on their deadly products — no less, a generation who was on track to be the first tobacco-free generation,” Lacasse said.
“We have known for years about this danger and still the FDA continues to delay taking definitive action — despite a court ordered deadline — on some of the biggest brands and manufacturers of these products.”
“FDA’s ongoing delays and inadequate action to evaluate products with substantial market share and enforce marketing denial orders to date leave the door open for further addiction to products that contain nicotine, proven to harm brain development in children.”
