CDC Study: Youth E-cigarette Use Sees Significant Drop

The overall use of e-cigarettes by youth dropped from 28 percent to 20 percent among high schoolers, according to the latest data. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), which show 1.8 million fewer U.S. youth are currently using e-cigarettes compared to 2019.

“After two years of disturbing increases in youth e-cigarette use, we are encouraged by the overall significant decline reported in 2020,” the FDA stated in a release. “This is good news; however, the FDA remains very concerned about the 3.6 million U.S. youth who currently use e-cigarettes and we acknowledge there is work that still needs to be done to curb youth use.”

The 2020 NYTS data also showed an uptick in the youth use of disposable e-cigarettes. Disposable products were reportedly used by 26.5 percent of high school e-cigarette users (up from 2.4 percent in 2019) and 15.2 percent of middle school e-cigarette users (up from 3 percent in 2019).

A rise in the youth use of flavors prompted the FDA to remove all flavored prefilled pods from the market. However, consistent with 2019, prefilled pods or cartridges were the most commonly used device type in 2020, the report states. “The use of disposable e-cigarettes surged among both high school and middle school students,” the FDA statement noted.

The NYTS was released on the same day that premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) were due to the FDA. Companies must demonstrate that each product meets the applicable statutory criteria for receiving marketing authorization, such as whether marketing the product is appropriate for the protection of the public health.