E-Cigarette Use Jumps 60 Percent in One Year; No Progress in Reducing Cigarette and Cigar Use

Results from a new study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show a 61 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students. This dramatic increase in e-cigarette use comes at a time when cigarette and cigar use among high school students remains unchanged at 12.7 and 11.9 percent, respectively.

While cigar use continues to be the second most popular form of tobacco use (11.9 percent) after cigarettes (12.7 percent), the 2013 study shows that black high school students are 63 percent more likely to smoke cigars than cigarettes. And rates of cigarette and cigar use among high school students overall remain essentially static from 2012.

“This study shows a disturbing trend in the use of tobacco products among youth that are currently outside of FDA’s authority,” said Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association. “The clock continues to tick on the FDA and the Administration to begin its basic oversight of e-cigarettes, cigars and other products.”

The results come from the 2013 National Youth Tobacco Survey of middle and high school students. The survey showed that e-cigarette use was up across the board among white, black and Hispanic high school students. The greatest increases from 2012 to 2013 were among blacks, with use more than doubling from 1.1 percent to 2.7 percent. E-cigarette use was highest among Hispanics at 5.3 percent, which was a substantial increase from the 2012 rate of 2.7 percent.  CDC also found that 12.6 percent of high school students are using two or more tobacco products.

Today’s study highlights the urgent need for the Obama Administration to finalize the “deeming” regulation that would give the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products authority over e-cigarettes and other unregulated tobacco products. Cigars, e-cigarettes, hookah and pipe tobacco are currently unregulated by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, which has had oversight authority over cigarettes and smokeless tobacco since 2009. Earlier this year, the American Lung Association filed its own comments as well as joint comments with partners urging FDA to act by the end of 2014.

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