E-cigarettes hit the market about 20 years in the past, and have become successful amongst youngsters. A brand new survey, nonetheless, finds far fewer teenagers used e-cigarettes over the previous yr.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
E-cigarettes hit the market about 20 years in the past. They turned all the fad amongst youngsters, and vaping turned a verb. Now a brand new survey, out simply yesterday, reveals far fewer teenagers used e-cigarettes over the previous yr. NPR’s Yuki Noguchi has extra.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Regulators like Brian King are elated over the truth that fewer center and excessive schoolers are vaping e-cigarettes. That quantity declined to 1.6 million teenagers. Now, in response to the Nationwide Youth Tobacco Survey, just below 6% of youth vape.
BRIAN KING: It additionally represents a decline of roughly 70% from only a half decade in the past in 2019, when youth e-cigarette use was at its peak nationally.
NOGUCHI: King directs the FDA’s Heart for Tobacco Merchandise. He says, final yr, his company, together with legislation enforcement, cracked down on numerous elements of the e-cigarette provide chain for the primary time.
BRIAN KING: The primary injunctions towards e-cigarette producers, first civil cash penalties towards e-cigarette producers, first civil cash penalties towards retailers for the utmost greenback quantity, additionally the primary judicial seizures towards e-cigarette distributors.
NOGUCHI: He additionally credited numerous counter-marketing efforts to warn younger folks about vaping with bringing charges down. Anti-smoking advocates welcomed the information, however in addition they famous how the business is shifting technique, introducing new merchandise focusing on younger folks. Yolonda Richardson is CEO of the Marketing campaign for Tobacco-Free Youngsters. She says right now’s e-cigarettes are extra addictive as a result of they arrive in ever-higher concentrations of nicotine. She additionally famous that different merchandise, notably flavored pouches that secrete powdered nicotine within the mouth, are additionally gaining in recognition, if not as rapidly as e-cigarettes did a decade in the past.
YOLONDA RICHARDSON: We’re very involved that the business continues to search out new merchandise, new methods to addict our children, and more and more to take action in ways in which turn out to be actually inconspicuous to adults.
NOGUCHI: The FDA’s Brian King stated the company is continuous to trace who’s utilizing these merchandise, and significantly whether or not they’re a gateway for youths utilizing nicotine.
Yuki Noguchi, NPR Information.
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