WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Monitoring the
Future Survey (MTF) published today in JAMA
Pediatrics shows that nicotine vaping among youth remained
high in 2020 with 22% of 10th and 12th
graders using e-cigarettes in the last 30 days, essentially
unchanged from 22.5% in 2019. These data are consistent with those
from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) released in
September 2020, that showed nearly
20% of high school students, one in five, use e-cigarettes
underscoring that youth tobacco use remains at epidemic levels and
much more needs to be done.
Both the NYTS and MTF surveys reinforce stronger federal
policies must be put in place immediately that are clear,
comprehensive, and consistently enforced with no loopholes. Ad hoc
policy responses to date, like warning letters to vaping companies
such as Puff Bar or partial flavors bans, have resulted in product
substitution, failures to comply, and new illegal products
continuing to enter the market. A nation-wide policy without
exceptions is needed to significantly reduce the youth vaping
epidemic. As the survey results released today show, although use
of JUUL decreased between 2019 and 2020, JUUL remained the most
popular e-cigarette brand among 10th and
12th graders who were current vapers at 41%, and
new, unregulated flavored disposable products such as Puff Bar (8%)
and Smok (13.1%) have stepped in to fill whatever void was left by
JUUL's partial flavored pod removal. Flavors remain the
overwhelming preference for youth vapers, with fruit and mint
flavors the most popular, and menthol more than twice as popular as
tobacco flavor. The FDA and incoming Biden Administration have a
window of opportunity to accelerate progress by clearing the market
of all flavored tobacco products (including menthol) and to stop
playing whack-a-mole with loophole ridden policies so that we
protect our youth before these addictive products make their way
into kids' hands – not after.
If there is good news to be taken from this year's survey, it's
that the sharp growth in youth e-cigarette use has been stemmed.
One reason suggested from the data is that teens are getting the
message that vaping nicotine is not just fun and flavors. Among all
youth surveyed, perceived risk of both occasional and regular
nicotine vaping increased. According to the 2020 data, the
percentage of 10th and 12th grade students
who perceived "great harm" from occasional nicotine vaping
significantly increased from 21% in 2019 to 27% in 2020. Perceived
risk of regular nicotine vaping also significantly increased from
39% in 2019 to 49% in 2020, continuing increases that began in
2018.
This underscores that the efforts of Truth Initiative and our
public health partners are starting to work. Since the fall of
2018, youth vaping prevention and education have been the primary
focus of Truth Initiative's proven-effective national truth
campaign. Most recently, and in response to the pandemic,
truth launched an effort titled Vaping vs. Immune Systems
with Dr. Rutland to educate youth on the connection
between COVID-19 and vaping, change misperceptions, and help them
stay healthy by explaining how vaping can damage lungs and weaken
immune systems.
This is Quitting,
truth's first-of-its-kind, free text message quit
vaping program designed specifically for teens and young adults
already has more than 225,000 young people enrolled to date.
According to preliminary data published in Nicotine &
Tobacco Research, after just two weeks of using the program,
more than half (60.8%) reported that they had reduced or stopped
using e-cigarettes.
And most recently, Truth Initiative and Kaiser Permanente, in
collaboration with the American Heart Association launched a
national vaping prevention curriculum called Vaping: Know the
truth to guide teachers and empower teens who vape to quit, or
to never start in the first place. This free digital program is
unique in that is written and delivered in truth's
peer-to-peer voice, self-led, available digitally or in the
classroom and directly links students who are vaping to our
proven-effective This is Quitting program.
The University of
Michigan's Monitoring the
Future study tracks trends in substance use among
students in 12th, 10th and 8th grades.
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SOURCE Truth Initiative