Increase in Teen Tobacco Use Driven by E-Cigarettes: Report

Teens’ use of tobacco products is on the rise, driven by an increase in e-cigarette use, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than one in four high school students and about one in 14 middle school students in 2018 said they had used a tobacco product in the past 30 days, NBC News reports. E-cigarette use increased from 11.7 percent to 20.8 percent among high school students and from 3.3 percent to 4.9 percent among middle school students from 2017 to 2018. No change was found in the use of other tobacco products, including cigarettes, during this period.

“The skyrocketing growth of young people’s e-cigarette use over the past year threatens to erase progress made in reducing youth tobacco use. It’s putting a new generation at risk for nicotine addiction,” CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D., said in a news release. “Despite this troubling trend, we know what works and we must continue to use proven strategies to protect America’s youth from this preventable health risk. Youth use of any tobacco product, including
e-cigarettes, is unsafe.”