US: More Young People Vaping, Fewer Smoking Tobacco

Rates of traditional and electronic cigarette use by youths continue to go in opposite directions, according to the 2018 version of a national report on alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
 

The Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan found that 12th-graders’ consumption of traditional cigarettes dropped again to a historic low, this time 7.8 percent compared with 9.7 percent in 2017.
 

Consumption is considered at least one use of the products in a 30-day period. Researchers typically survey between 40,000 and 50,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grade students in about 400 secondary schools.
 

Meanwhile, 26.7 percent said they vaped at least once during the 30-day period. That’s up from 16.3 percent when researchers began reviewing vaping in 2015.
 

Youth traditional cigarette smoking has been on a steady decline since topping out at 36.5 percent in 1997 — the year before the landmark Master Settlement Agreement was reached between 46 state attorneys general and the top U.S. tobacco manufacturers.
 

Smokeless tobacco use also is at a historic low of 4.2 percent among 12th-graders.
 

Interestingly, the dramatic decline in traditional cigarettes has become almost an afterthought to the study’s researchers, as well as many anti-tobacco advocates and the Food and Drug Administration. They are all putting more emphasis on youth vaping and e-cig use.
 

For example, researchers dedicated the majority of their three-page statement to vaping, while spending just a paragraph on traditional cigarettes.
 

The percentage of 12th graders who vaped to consume nicotine was at 20.9 percent compared with 11 percent in 2017, while those vaping just for flavoring was at 13.5 percent, up from 9.7 percent in 2017. Those vaping marijuana went from 4.9 percent to 7.5 percent.
 

When it comes to alcohol use, 30.2 percent of 12th-graders said they had consumed within a 30-day period, down from 33.2 percent in 2017. That rate also has been on a steady decline since peaking at 52.7 percent in 1997.
 

Gregory Conley, president of American Vaping Association, said that youth cigarette smoking had stalled for several years prior to vaping coming to market.
 

“It was then followed by the record-breaking declines in smoking once risk-seeking teens found different, less-risky products to experiment with,” Conley said.
 

Richard Miech, lead author of the study, said in a statement that “the policies and procedures in place to prevent youth vaping clearly haven’t worked. We need new policies and strategies.”
 

FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb recommended Nov. 15 the limiting of e-cig flavors to tobacco, menthol and mint.
 

Juul Labs Inc., maker of the top-selling U.S. e-cig with a 76 percent market share, said Nov. 14 it would temporarily only sell tobacco, mint and menthol flavors at more than 90,000 convenience stores and vape shops. The creme, cucumber, fruit and mango flavors being removed remain available at www.juul.com, but with heightened age-restriction policies and age-21 verification.
 

“Vaping is reversing hard-fought declines in the number of adolescents who use nicotine,” Miech said. “These results suggest that vaping is leading youth into nicotine use and nicotine addiction, not away from it.”
 

However, the report appears to refute — at least for now — the claims of some anti-tobacco advocates that vaping will serve as a gateway to youths smoking traditional cigarettesMatthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the report “leaves no doubt that skyrocketing youth use of e-cigarettes has become a public health emergency in the United States.”
 

“It demands the strongest possible action by the FDA and policy makers at all levels. The FDA’s actions to date are not enough, and we cannot afford to wait another year to see if they are having an impact.”
 

However, Myers acknowledged “it is too soon to tell what impact the increase in youth e-cigarette use will have on youth cigarette smoking rates.”
 

Conley said that “professional fear-mongers are going to have to examine the data and conclude that any gateway effect from vaping to cigarettes is far outweighed by the number of teens displaced from ever smoking because of vaping.”
 

Conley expressed his concerns that increasing youth use of marijuana, including vaping, “will continue to be treated with kid gloves, while (nicotine) vaping companies are treated as pariahs for daring to try to lower adult smoking rates.”
 

Kimberly Wagoner, assistant professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Health, said her main concern with the increase in youth e-cig use is that “many of these products contain high levels of nicotine, which can lead to dependence.”
 

“Marijuana use is becoming more socially acceptable, in part due to a growing number of states legalizing recreational marijuana use. This has led to an expanding marijuana market, including e-liquids that can be inconspicuously vaped, often without any smell.
 

“In the future, we may see an increase in marijuana use among teens because of increased product availability and decreased perceptions of harmfulness regarding use.”