CNN reports health officials are “continuing to sound the alarm on the teen vaping epidemic, tying the nearly 80% spike in youth tobacco use from 2017 to 2018 directly to e-cigarettes” in a report released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Brian King, Deputy Director in the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and co-author of the report, said, “It’s no coincidence that we’ve seen a sharp uptake in Juul sales.” The research “found no significant change in the current use of combustible tobacco products by teens,” but the rise in e-cigarette use “drove the overall increase in youth tobacco use. Notably, no decline in use of other tobacco products was identified.” During the period, e-cigarette use increased 77.8 percent among high school students and 48.5 percent among middle school students. CNN adds that FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb last week “sent letters to the CEOs of Juul and tobacco company Altria, requesting a meeting to discuss the youth vaping epidemic and the implications of Altria’s recent $13 billion stake in Juul.” Gottlieb said in the letter, “I have no reason to believe these youth patterns of use are abating in the near term, and they certainly do not appear to be reversing. Manufacturers have an independent responsibility to take action to address the epidemic of youth use of their products.”
The Guardian (US) reports about “4.9 million American teens used e-cigarettes in 2018, an increase of 1.5 million teens in just 12 months.” FDA Commissioner Gottlieb said, “I fear this trend will continue in 2019, forcing us to make some tough decisions about the regulatory status of e-cigarettes.”
AFP reports Mitch Zeller, Director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the FDA, said, “All policy options are on the table.”
CNBC says the CDC report indicates that nearly 21 percent of high school students vaped last year and about 27 percent used some form of a tobacco product. CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a statement, “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.” CNBC adds that “Surgeon General Jerome Adams has declared youth e-cigarette use an epidemic,” while the FDA “is drafting new rules that would limit flavored nicotine pods to age-restricted stores like vape shops.” FDA Commissioner Gottlieb “said Monday the agency is also exploring possible civil and criminal enforcement tools ‘to target potentially violative sales and marketing practices by manufacturers as well as retailers.’” Gottlieb said in a statement, “These trends require forceful and sometimes unprecedented action among regulators, public health officials, manufacturers, retailers and others to address this troubling problem.” CNBC also posts a two-minute online video from The Exchange.
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
