United States – Is vaping finally becoming uncool for young people in America?
The last count of federal data on school children reveals that, out of 60,000 children, most of them in high schools left e-cigarettes in 2024, as reported by HealthDay.
Vaping declined from 10 percent of high school students in 2023 to 7.8 percent this year, “the lowest levels ever recorded in the National Youth Tobacco Survey,” according to a team of specialists from the US Centers for Disease Control.
A Milestone in Public Health
“Reaching a 25-year low for youth tobacco product use is an extraordinary milestone for public health. However, with more than 2 million youth using tobacco products and certain groups not experiencing declines in use, our mission is far from complete,” Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a news announcing the new data.
Rates of use of traditional cigarettes are also extremely low. Thus, current rates of smoking shown in the conducted report are significantly lower, as only 1.4% of middle and high school kids smoke.
The only bit of bad news: Another relatively recently introduced tobacco product is nicotine-containing tobacco pouches, which people insert between the cheek and gum; these products have increased in popularity among teenage users.
The Rise
Currently, pouches have become the second most widely used tobacco product among students, with 2.4% of high school students being frequent users.
“Nicotine pouch sales have substantially increased nationwide since 2016,” noted the team led by CDC investigator Ahmed Jamal, and “nearly one million (890,000) students reported ever using nicotine pouches in 2024.”
However, the general trends were upward, and by 2024, a study found that only one of every 10 middle and high school students was engaging in the use of any of the tobacco products.
According to Jamal’s team, these declines were a result of continued activation awareness campaigns at the national, state, and local levels about the negative impacts of vaping and smoking among kids.
However, it is important to keep in mind that the tobacco industry is never far from a battle, and there are still some worrying tendencies.
Continued Efforts and Ongoing Challenges
They noted that the availability of youth-appealing flavored [vape] products, marketing, harm misperceptions, [and] the emergence of new flavor types; for instance, cooling, fruity “ice” flavored can easily entice children back into the vice as they become hooked on vaping again, as reported by HealthDay.
“We’re headed in the right direction when it comes to reducing tobacco product use among our nation’s youth,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in the CDC news release. “But we can’t take our foot off the gas. Continued vigilance is needed to continue to reduce all forms of tobacco product use among youth. Addressing disparities remains an essential part of these efforts to ensure that we don’t leave anyone behind.”