WASHINGTON — Over 2.5 million middle and high school students in the U.S. reported electronic cigarette use in 2022, according to a new study from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nearly 85% of teenagers who use e-cigarettes had flavored products, ranging from fruit, candy and other sweets, mint and menthol. More than half relied on disposable e-cigarettes, followed by 25% who had refillable cartridges.
The findings, published on Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, are based on data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, a self-reported survey of middle and high school students administered between Jan. 18 and May 31.
“Our work is far from over,” Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement. "It’s critical that we work together to prevent youth from starting to use any tobacco product - including e-cigarettes - and help all youth who do use them, to quit."
The self-administered survey also categorized the brands most used by teenagers and by frequent usage. Among those who currently use e-cigarettes, 14.5% use Puff Bar, 12.5% use Vuse, 5.5% use Hyde, 4% use SMOK and 21.8% use a brand not listed in the survey.
More than 1 in 4 teenagers used e-cigarettes daily and more than 4 in 10 used them on 20 or more of the past 30 days from when they answered the survey.
In last year's survey, about 11% said they had vaped recently.
But experts cautioned that a change in the survey makes it difficult to compare the two: This year, a much higher percentage of participants took the survey in schools, and vaping tends to be reported more in schools than in homes.
“Adolescent e-cigarette use in the United States remains at concerning levels and poses a serious public health risk to our nation’s youth,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products in a statement.
In September, the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs, which had long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping, agreed to pay nearly $440 million to settle a multi-state investigation into its vaping products.
The investigation found that Juul marketed its e-cigarettes to underage teens with launch parties, product giveaways, ads and social media posts using youthful models, according to a statement.
In this year’s survey, about one-fifth of teens who vape reported recently using Juul, though it was no longer a favorite brand. That's a big shift from 2019, when more than half of teens reported Juul as their usual brand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.