Elf Bar disposable flavored e-cigarette products are displayed in a convenience store in El Segundo, California, on June 23, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
E-cigarette usage amongst U.S. highschool students has fallen as the federal government pursues aggressive motion against firms selling illegal vape products that appeal to young people, federal health regulators said Thursday.
The findings, a component of the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, showed that between 2022 and 2023, e-cigarette use amongst highschool students declined to 10% from 14.1%, a drop representing about 580,000 fewer high schoolers.
The decline comes as overall tobacco smoking amongst this group hits an all-time low, in response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Current use of any tobacco product by highschool students declined an estimated 540,000 students to 1.97 million in 2023, from 2.51 million in 2022.
“It’s encouraging to see this substantial decline in e-cigarette use amongst high schoolers throughout the past yr, which is a win for public health,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a release.
E-cigarettes have been essentially the most commonly used tobacco product amongst each highschool and middle school students for a decade. For middle schoolers, grades 6 to eight, there have been no significant changes in e-cigarette use from 2022 to 2023. Still, for middle schoolers, there was a rise in current overall tobacco product use to six.6% from 4.5%.
Curbing e-cigarette usage among the many country’s youth has been a top priority for U.S. health regulators. In recent months, the difficulty has change into more cumbersome as newer vaping devices flood the market from overseas and circumvent existing tobacco regulation. The largest wrongdoer, Chinese brand Elf Bar, can still be found on shelves despite being banned by the FDA.
Amongst students currently using e-cigarettes, Elf Bar was essentially the most commonly reported brand at 56.7%, followed by Esco Bars, Vuse, JUUL and Mr. Fog, the report found.
The report reiterated that youth use of tobacco products stays unsafe.
King said the agency has more work to do to crackdown as “bad actors place profit over the health of our nation’s youth.”
“The FDA stays concerned about youth tobacco product use, and we cannot and won’t let our guard down on this issue,” King said. “The agency has an array of enforcement tools at our disposal, and we’re committed to using them as appropriate.”
Over the past yr, the FDA said it has issued greater than tons of of warning letters to manufacturers, distributors and retailers of unauthorized e-cigarettes, including several distributors of Elf Bar.
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