More Than 2.5 Million US Youth Reported Using e-Cigarettes in 2022

The FDA and CDC said this week that more than 2.5 million US middle school and high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2022.

Authors from the agencies found that nearly 85% of those who responded to an annual survey used flavored e-cigarettes, and more than half used disposable cigarettes. The findings were published in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Since 2014, e-cigarettes have been the most popular tobacco product among US youth. Enticing flavors, youth-targeted branding, and the convenient disposable devices fuel nicotine addictions in adolescents.

“This study shows that our nation’s youth continue to be enticed and hooked by an expanding variety of e-cigarette brands delivering flavored nicotine,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, PhD, MPH, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Our work is far from over. It’s critical that we work together to prevent youth from starting to use any tobacco product—including e-cigarettes—and help all youth who do use them, to quit,” Kittner said in a statement.

The CDC and FDA analyzed data taken from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), a web-based, self-administered survey conducted between January 18 and May 31, 2022. The survey asks about use of e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. The report cautioned that the ability to make comparisons with other years was hampered by methodology changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

e-Cigarette brands purposefully target a younger audience by marketing fun, novelty flavors and using conveniently disposable packaging, regulators have said. The most popular flavors reported in the survey were fruit (69.1%), candy or other sweet desserts (38.3%), mint (29.4%), and menthol (26.6%.)

The most popular brands used by middle and high school students were Puff Bar (14.5%), Vuse (12.5%), Hyde (5.5%), and SMOK (4%.) Additionally, 12.8% of students currently using e-cigarettes reported their usual brand to be something other than the 13 brands listed in the survey.

Other key findings of this study illustrate the extent of e-cigarette use in youth:

• Among youth who currently used e-cigarettes, 1 in 4 (27%) used them daily, and more than 4 in 10 (42.3%) reported using 20 or more days in the past 30 days.
• The most common type of device used were disposable (55.3%), prefilled/refillable pods or cartridges (25.2%) and tanks or mod systems (6.7%). In addition, 12.8% reported not knowing the type of device they used

“Adolescent e-cigarette use in the United States remains at concerning levels, and poses a serious public health risk to our nation’s youth,” said Brian King, PhD, MPH, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Together with the CDC, protecting our nation’s youth from the dangers of tobacco products—including e-cigarettes—remains among the FDA’s highest priorities, and we are committed to combatting this issue with the breadth of our regulatory authorities,” King said.

The FDA also issued a warning letter the marketers of Puff Bar for receiving and delivering e-cigarettes in the United States without a marketing authorization order. It also issued marketing denial orders for 32 applications of Hyde e-cigarettes.

Reference

Cooper M, Park-Lee, Ren C, Cornelius M, Jamal A, Cullen KA. Notes from the field: e-cigarette use among middle and high school students – United States, 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022;(71)40:1283-1285. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7140a3