The US Food and Drug Administration yesterday launched its The Real Cost Youth E-Cigarette Prevention Campaign, describing it as a ‘new, comprehensive effort aimed at educating kids about the dangers of e-cigarettes’.
The campaign is said to target nearly 10.7 million people aged 12-17 who have used electronic cigarettes or are open to trying them.
It features ‘hard-hitting’, public notices on digital and social media sites popular with teenagers, and includes posters with e-cigarette prevention messages posted in high schools across the nation.
During the past several years, e-cigarettes were the tobacco product [the FDA ‘deems’ e-cigarettes to be tobacco products] most commonly used by young people, the FDA said in a statement issued through its Center for Tobacco Products.
‘In fact, more than two million middle- and high-school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2017, and the FDA now believes that youth use of e-cigarettes is reaching epidemic proportions,’ according to the statement.
‘With its tagline, “Know the Real Cost of Vaping,” the campaign aims to educate youth that using e-cigarettes, just like cigarettes, puts them at risk for addiction and other health consequences. The messages highlight that nicotine can rewire the brain to crave more nicotine, particularly because adolescent brains are still developing. Other messages highlight that e-cigarettes, among other things, can contain dangerous chemicals such as: acrolein, a chemical that can cause irreversible lung damage; formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical; and toxic metal particles, like [such as] chromium, lead and nickel, which can be inhaled into the lungs.
‘This new campaign is part of the FDA’s ongoing efforts to prevent disease and death caused by tobacco use and will complement the agency’s other youth tobacco prevention campaigns.’
More details, including the statement that e-cigarettes have become an ‘almost ubiquitous’ trend among young people, are here.