Youth E-Cigarette Use on the Rise Despite FDA’s Effort to Curtail it
[Thursday, February 14, 2019]

Tobacco use in middle and high-school students went up more than 36% in 2018 compared to the year before, most of it due to increased use of e-cigarettes. This during times when FDA’s enforcement activities such as audits of sellers of tobacco products to children, educational activities, and social media awareness campaigns by FDA were at an all time high. This should be a depressing news for the regulators that while they increased their efforts, the effect was not seen. One can console with the argument that without FDA’s multitude actions, the increased use in teenagers may have been even higher. But it does raise an important question, is the approach adequate or does it need tweaking. The tobacco use is on the downward trend with more and more smokers shifting to smokeless products such as e-cigarettes. FDA has acknowledged the important role of e-cigarettes to reduce conventional cigarettes in adults. But it has led to a side-effect of ease access to e-cigarettes or other smokeless tobacco products. Unlike conventional cigarettes, these products have a longer use life and because they are easier to detect, even without flavors, they offer an attractive alternate to younger users. FDA announced enhanced enforcement and other actions but these are more or less similar to its efforts last year, so, the results could be similar as well.