FDA targets teen e-cigarette use with new TV ad campaign

This week, the FDA introduced a new series of television advertisements highlighting the dangers of e-cigarette use.

In September 2018, the agency began what it called a “hard-hitting” advertising campaign on digital and social media platforms and in schools throughout the country. Nearly 10.7 million teenagers aged 12 to 17 years were targeted by the campaign.

“The troubling epidemic of youth vaping threatens to erase the years of progress we’ve made combatting tobacco use among kids, and it’s imperative that our work to tackle this immensely concerning trend continue to include efforts to educate our nation’s youth about the dangers of these products,” acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, MD, said in a press release.

The FDA also announced that they will provide new educational materials and posters for middle and high schools as part of The Real Cost Youth E-Cigarette Campaign, which was originally launched in 2014. The agency reported that by referring teens who want to quit vaping to SmokeFreeTeen — a website run by the NIH — total interactions with call and online chat services provided by the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service have increased more than 250%.

Research published this year in JAMA Network Open reinforced the link between e-cigarette use and the risk for future cigarette use. The researchers found that prior e-cigarette use was associated with a fourfold increased risk for cigarette use (OR = 4.09; 95% CI, 2.97-5.63).

“We cannot allow the next generation of young people to become addicted to nicotine,” Sharpless said. “We will continue to work to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of America’s kids through policies to limit youth access to, and appeal of, e-cigarette products, take vigorous compliance and enforcement actions to hold manufacturers and retailers accountable when they illegally market or sell these products to minors, and continue to spearhead highly successful public education efforts to warn youth about the dangers of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.” – by Katherine Bortz

Resources:

Berry KM, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.7794.

NIH. SmokeFreeTeen. https://teen.smokefree.gov. Accessed July 23, 2019.