More than 2 million US youth currently use tobacco products
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Key takeaways:
- An estimated 2.25 million students currently use tobacco products, according to researchers.
- More than one-third said they use multiple tobacco products.
Tobacco use has decreased among middle and high school students in the United States, yet an estimated 2.25 million youth still actively used tobacco products in 2024, according to a study by CDC and FDA researchers.
“Use of tobacco products in any form is unsafe, and nearly all tobacco product use begins during adolescence,” Ahmed Jamal, MBBS, from the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, and colleagues wrote.
Jamal and colleagues analyzed 29,861 responses to the National Youth Tobacco Survey from middle and high school students in grades 6 through 12 from Jan. 22 to May 22, 2024.
Nearly one in five students — an estimated 5.28 million — reported ever using tobacco products, and 8.1%, or 2.25 million students, said they currently used tobacco products, the researchers found.
Overall, tobacco use decreased from 10% in 2023 to 8.1% in 2024, and use fell from 12.6% to 10.1% among high school students. There was no significant change among middle school students, according to Jamal and colleagues. As Healio previously reported, 5.9% of teens reported using e-cigarettes this year, the lowest level in a decade.
However, the researchers found that tobacco use doubled among American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) students, from 8% in 2023 to 16.3% in 2024. AI/AN students reported increased use of e-cigarettes (5.9% to 11.5%), combustible tobacco (2.7% to 6.3%), other oral nicotine products (0.5% to 2.8%) and multiple tobacco products (2% to 6.9%).
White students reported increased use of nicotine pouches from 1.4% in 2023 to 2.2% in 2024, according to the study.
Among students who used tobacco products, 38.9% of middle schoolers and 36.6% of high schoolers said they used multiple products.
“Multiple factors continue to influence tobacco product use and initiation among adolescents including availability of youth-appealing flavored products, marketing, harm misperceptions, the emergence of new flavor types ... and product features,” Jamal and colleagues wrote. “Evidence-based tobacco prevention strategies include price increases, mass media campaigns to educate youths about the harmful effects of all tobacco products and implementation of comprehensive smoke-free policies that include e-cigarettes.”
Perspective
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The findings from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey are positive. However, it is still unacceptable that there are 2.25 million middle and high school students who currently use a tobacco product.
First, let’s look at the positive: Youth tobacco use levels are the lowest they have been in 25 years. Decades of work from the American Lung Association and many public health partners to educate the public about the harms of tobacco and successfully advocate for proven policies to reduce youth tobacco use have driven that change. Proven policies, including increasing taxes on tobacco products, ending the sale of flavored tobacco products, smokefree laws, investment in state prevention and quitting programs and implementing the Tobacco Control Act, are working.
Unfortunately, too many students are still addicted to these products. Although cigarette smoking rates are at an all-time low for teens and adults, rates of use for newer products like e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches are concerning. The level of addiction and heavy use among kids who use these products are also very troubling. The tobacco industry continues to create innovative products and market them illegally to addict the next generation.
Physicians and public health advocates are closely watching the increasing popularity of nicotine pouch products like Zyn. Many nicotine pouch products have not received authorization from the FDA to be sold in the United States, meaning they are on the market illegally. These products contain a significant amount of nicotine, are extremely addictive and come in kid-friendly flavors like citrus, cool mint and cinnamon. Although the National Youth Tobacco Survey didn’t show a statistically significant increase in high school and middle school use of nicotine pouches, the Lung Association urges swift action by the FDA to remove illegal products from the marketplace, so these don’t become the next tobacco product to cause an epidemic.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey results are positive. However, we won’t stop until all kids are safe from tobacco addiction and all current users have the help they need to end their addiction for good.
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