The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data from the 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey that show a decline in high school youth e-cigarette use from 27 percent in 2019 to 19 percent in 2020.  While the decline is welcome news, over 3.5 million youth continue to report e-cigarette use in the past 30-days.  Of particular concern in the CDC report was the intensity of e-cigarette use among current e-cigarette users; 38.9 percent of high school students who use e-cigarettes and 20.0 percent of middle school students  who use e-cigarettes reported use on 20 or more of the past 30 days; 22.5 percent of high school users and 9.4 percent of middle school users reported daily e-cigarette use.  The CDC report also underlined the well-known role of flavors in driving youth e-cigarette use, with 82.9 percent of all youth e-cigarette users reported using flavored e-cigarette products. 

“The concerning level of youth e-cigarette use is a direct result of the FDA’s failure to regulate e-cigarettes,” responded Michelle Eakin PhD, chair of the ATS Tobacco Action Committee.  “Even the few actions FDA have taken have been so slow and so riddled with loopholes that e-cigarette companies continue to make and sell flavored e-cigarette products to kids despite a supposed flavoring ban.  The 1,000 percent increase in youth use of flavored disposable e-cigarettes shows just how ineffective the FDA’s current flavoring restrictions are.”