WASHINGTON, D.C. – New data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 1.63 million youth reported using e-cigarettes. There is an encouraging decrease in high school use rates, while middle school use rates remain unchanged from 2023. The report also shows no change from last year in the number of youth using nicotine pouches, almost half a million. The most frequently reported brands of pouches used by youth were Zyn (68.7%), on! (14.2%) and Rogue (13.6%). For both e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, the vast majority report using flavors, including mint and menthol, highlighting the reality that these flavored products are successfully being targeted to youth by the tobacco industry. These findings demonstrate the importance of eliminating the sale of all flavored tobacco products.
The following is a statement from Lisa Lacasse, President of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN):
“We are pleased to see a significant reduction in the number of high school students using e-cigarettes, but the data released today proves that we can and must do more. With tobacco use being the number one cause of cancer death, we must prevent youth from ever starting to use any of these highly addictive products.
“Flavors are key tools that Big Tobacco uses to target youth and young adults into a lifetime of addiction. ACS CAN calls on the FDA to immediately reverse its decision to issue marketing orders for flavored e-cigarettes given this new data and to deny marketing orders for any flavored tobacco product moving forward. Policymakers should be concerned about nicotine pouch use and implement policies to prevent a new wave of tobacco addiction among youth. This starts with the FDA quickly completing its premarket review process for all new tobacco products and removing them from the market.
“ACS CAN is also calling on state and local governments to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and all other flavored tobacco products and enact proven tobacco control policies including comprehensive smoke-free laws, regular and significant tax increases on all tobacco products and adequate funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs – lives depend on it.”