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E-cigarette use is declining — even as the industry eyes teens for new products

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

E-cigarettes hit the market about 20 years ago. They became all the rage among teenagers, and vaping became a verb. Now a new survey, out just yesterday, shows far fewer teens used e-cigarettes over the past year. NPR's Yuki Noguchi has more.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Regulators like Brian King are elated over the fact that fewer middle and high schoolers are vaping e-cigarettes. That number declined to 1.6 million teens. Now, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, just under 6% of youth vape.

BRIAN KING: It also represents a decline of approximately 70% from just a half decade ago in 2019, when youth e-cigarette use was at its peak nationally.

NOGUCHI: King directs the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. He says, last year, his agency, along with law enforcement, cracked down on various parts of the e-cigarette supply chain for the first time.

BRIAN KING: The first injunctions against e-cigarette manufacturers, first civil money penalties against e-cigarette manufacturers, first civil money penalties against retailers for the maximum dollar amount, also the first judicial seizures against e-cigarette distributors.

NOGUCHI: He also credited various counter-marketing efforts to warn young people about vaping with bringing rates down. Anti-smoking advocates welcomed the news, but they also noted how the industry is shifting strategy, introducing new products targeting young people. Yolonda Richardson is CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. She says today's e-cigarettes are more addictive because they come in ever-higher concentrations of nicotine. She also noted that other products, notably flavored pouches that secrete powdered nicotine in the mouth, are also gaining in popularity, if not as quickly as e-cigarettes did a decade ago.

YOLONDA RICHARDSON: We're very concerned that the industry continues to find new products, new ways to addict our kids, and increasingly to do so in ways that become really inconspicuous to adults.

NOGUCHI: The FDA's Brian King said the agency is continuing to track who's using those products, and particularly whether they are a gateway for kids using nicotine.

Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Yuki Noguchi is a correspondent on the Science Desk based out of NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. She started covering consumer health in the midst of the pandemic, reporting on everything from vaccination and racial inequities in access to health, to cancer care, obesity and mental health.