E-cigarette use among middle and high school students dropped from 2015 to 2016, reversing years of sharp increases among this demographic, according to a government report published Thursday.
This is the first time use of e-cigarettes, which heat a liquid nicotine solution that turns into a vapor users can inhale, has gone down among middle and high schoolers since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking the devices’ use among teens in 2011. The use of e-cigarettes declined among teens from 3 million in 2015 to 2.2 million in 2016.
It’s unclear what caused the reductions, whether public health marketing or laws that have banned sales to minors are having an effect, or whether teens believe the products have lost their novelty. Data were collected through voluntary surveys given to students at school.
The findings, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, contributed to overall decreases in tobacco use among children in middle school and high school from 4.7 million in 2015 to 3.9 million in 2016. The CDC defines “tobacco use” as having used a tobacco product, whether e-cigarettes, cigars, traditional cigarettes, chewing tobacco or hookah, during the past 30 days. For the third consecutive year, the use of e-cigarettes remains the most commonly used tobacco product.
Despite the reductions, CDC acting Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said in a statement that rates were still too high.
“Far too many young people are still using tobacco products, so we must continue to prioritize proven strategies to protect our youth from this preventable health risk,” she said.
The federal government’s stance is that e-cigarette use is dangerous for young people because the product contains nicotine, which is addictive. Vaping advocates have previously pointed out that while the number of young people who use the product increased for a few years, the reduction of smoking traditional cigarettes has dropped dramatically.
“The hysteria over youth vaping experimentation has been driven by the idea that vaping will lead to increases in teen smoking,” Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, a nonprofit that advocates on vaping policies, said in an email. “Not only is that not happening, but this new data shows that many teens who have tried vapor products are not continuing to use them. Regrettably, it is unlikely that studies like this will change the rhetoric being spewed by disingenuous special interest groups, as their opposition to vaping is rooted not in science, but in ideology and dogma.”
