Tag: NYTS

  • NYTS: Massive Declines in Smoking Rates Continue

    NYTS: Massive Declines in Smoking Rates Continue

    Youth cigarette smoking rates in the United States are at historically low levels, with just 1.9 percent of high school students reporting current use of cigarettes, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey 2021.

    The NYTS found 2.55 million middle-school and high school students in the United States used tobacco products in 2021, according to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 2020 results, the agency estimated 4.5 million tobacco users among middle school and high school students nationally, down from 6.2 million in 2019.

    If the report is accurate, tobacco use among teens nationally declined by more than 40 percent from 2020 to 2021. That would be largest decline in the history of the NYTS.

    E-cigarettes were the most popular tobacco product among middle school and high school students in 2021, with an estimated 2 million users, the report found. Puff Bar was the popular brand. That is expected to change next year after Congress passed a rule the same day the study was released that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over synthetic nicotine products. That rule requires manufacturers of synthetic nicotine products to file a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) with the FDA within 90 days.

    An estimated 400,000 of students in the middle-high school age range smoked traditional cigarettes, while approximately 380,000 used cigars. Roughly 240,000 used smokeless tobacco, while 220,000 used hookahs and 200,000 tried nicotine pouches, according to the report.

    Although the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration “remain confident in our study results,” the survey was conducted online, the agencies have again said that this year’s results cannot be compared to previous years. However, both the 2019 and 2020 surveys were conducted primarily on school campuses, the agencies said.

  • Study: THC Vapes More Risky Than Nicotine Vapes

    Study: THC Vapes More Risky Than Nicotine Vapes

    A new study shows that teens who vape pot are more likely to wheeze and cough than those who smoke cigarettes or vape nicotine. Appearing in the March 3 Journal of Adolescent Health, the study found that U.S. youth aged 12 to 17 show they have a higher risk of wheezing, suffering from a dry cough and having their sleep, speech or exercise impeded by wheezing if they vape marijuana products.

    man vaping marijuana
    Credit: Clear Cannabis

    The results are from the U.S. federally funded Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. It states that all symptoms are strongly related to lung injury, and it’s unclear how long they will last, said lead researcher Carol Boyd, co-director of the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health.

    “We found, and it was something that surprised us a bit, that it was the lifetime vaping cannabis that was associated with a far greater number of symptoms and a higher likelihood of having each of these symptoms than using either e-cigarettes or cigarettes,” Boyd said. “Lifetime” referred to any past use.

    Survey responses from nearly 15,000 teens showed that vaping pot increased their risk of wheezing or whistling in the chest by 81 percent compared with a 15 percent increased risk from cigarettes and a 9 percent increased risk from nicotine e-cigarettes.

    Vaping pot also increased teens’ risk of:

    • Sleep disturbed by wheezing by 71 percent;
    • Speech limited due to wheezing by 96 percent;
    • Wheezing during or after exercise by 33 percent; and
    • Dry coughing at night by 26 percent.

    Smoking and nicotine e-cigarette use also increased risks for these indications of lung injury, just not by as much, Boyd said, according to an article on usnews.com.

    “I think that industry would probably like to show that vaping e-cigarettes is healthier, that it’s the cannabis vaping causing these respiratory symptoms not the e-cigarettes. This is not true. E-cigarette vaping also causes symptoms among youth,” Boyd said. “However, in our study, and when we took into account their e-cigarette use, we found higher odds of having these respiratory symptoms among youth who had vaped cannabis.”

    The survey was taken between December 2016 and January 2018—prior to the wave of lung injuries among young people that occurred in 2019. It was given the name EVALI, or e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury.

    Boyd thinks some of these lung problems reported in the survey were probably due to EVALI, which has been linked to pot-laced e-liquids and particularly those containing vitamin E acetate. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four out of five patients with EVALI had vaped cannabis versus only about 16 percent who said they only vaped nicotine.

    The CDC has stated that vitamin E acetate was found in the lung fluid of all patients with EVALI.

  • Looking Back: 2020 NYTS Showed Decline in Youth Use

    Looking Back: 2020 NYTS Showed Decline in Youth Use

    AS recently reported, data from the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) found that 1.8 million fewer U.S. youth are currently using e-cigarettes compared to last year. The NYTS, conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), data shows an alarming increase in the number of youth who use disposable e-cigarettes.

    Compared to 2019, the number of youth using e-cigarettes is down 1.8 million. However, the number of youth using disposable e-cigarettes has risen: 26.5 percent of high school users are using disposables, up from 2.4 percent in 2019, and 15.2 percent of middle school users are using disposables, up from 3 percent last year.

    The FDA did not include disposable products when it announced its flavor ban for closed-pod systems in February of this year. The 2020 NYTS showed that more than 8 out of 10 youth e-cigarette users report use of flavored products and the majority of those used a disposbale product.

    The study states that almost 40 percent of high school users are using an e-cigarette on 20 or more days out of the month and almost a quarter of them use e-cigarettes every day.

    Last week, the FDA issued warning letters notifying three companies who sell or distribute unauthorized ENDS products to remove those products from the market. The regulatory agency issued a warning letter to XL Vape LLC (doing business as Stig Inc.), warning the company to remove their disposable e-cigarettes from the market because they do not have the required premarket authorization.

    The additional warning letters were issued to Flavour Warehouse LTD (doing business as Vampire Vape) and Pretty Women UK LTD (T/A Coil2oil and Mad Kingdom Liquids) for illegally marketing unauthorized menthol-flavored e-liquids. “The labeling and/or advertising of these products also features cartoon images, such as vampires and kings, that are commonly marketed and/or appeal to youth,” according to the FDA.