Nearly all tobacco use begins in adolescence. After years of decline, youth tobacco use in the United States rose sharply between 2017 and 2018, and e-cigarettes were the reason. CDC's February 2019 Vital Signs report laid out the numbers.
Image from CDC's Vital Signs page on youth tobacco use.
The numbers, 2018
- 4.9 million middle and high school students were current tobacco users — they had used a product in the past 30 days.
- There were 1.5 million more current youth e-cigarette users than in 2017.
- More than 1 in 4 high school students and about 1 in 14 middle school students used a tobacco product.
- Tobacco use of any kind grew 38.3% among high school students from 2017 to 2018.
| E-cigarette use | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| High school students | 11.7% | 20.8% |
| Middle school students | 3.3% | 4.9% |
| High school users who vaped on more than 20 of the past 30 days | 20% | 28% |
Use of other tobacco products, including cigarettes, did not change.
Tobacco product use among high school students, 2018. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among young people, e-cigarettes are the most used tobacco product — ahead of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah and pipes — and the product most often used together with others. Use is highest among boys, white students and high schoolers.
Why: JUUL, flavors and advertising
The jump in youth vaping came at the same time as rising sales of JUUL, which became the most commonly sold e-cigarette in the country.
- It is shaped like a USB flash drive and easy to hide.
- Its liquid nicotine refills, called "pods," contain at least as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.
- The pods come in flavors that appeal to young people.
- Students use JUUL devices in schools, including in bathrooms and classrooms.
CDC sums it up as an equation: advertising plus flavors equals youth e-cigarette use.
One JUUL pod, one pack of cigarettes' worth of nicotine. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why it matters
No tobacco product is safe for young people, e-cigarettes included:
- Nearly all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, contain nicotine.
- Nicotine can addict young people and harm the developing brain, affecting learning, memory and attention.
- Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, about 70 of which cause cancer.
What can be done
| Who | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Parents and educators | Set an example by not using tobacco; learn about the types and risks of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes |
| Healthcare providers | Ask specifically about e-cigarettes when screening; warn young patients about every tobacco product |
| Schools | Adopt and enforce tobacco-free campus policies that cover e-cigarettes; reject tobacco-industry prevention programs, which are proven not to work |
| States and communities | Ban smoking and vaping indoors at workplaces and public places; raise the minimum sale age for tobacco to 21; ban the sale of flavored tobacco products |
Sources
Based on "Tobacco Use By Youth Is Rising," Vital Signs, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (February 2019); a work of the United States government in the public domain. The data come from "Vital Signs: Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2018," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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