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Student Smoking Prevalence

According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey more than 11% of US middle school and high school students, nearly 3.1 million, used 1 or more tobacco products, especially e-cigarettes during 2022.

The study assessed 8 commercial tobacco products and found that for the ninth consecutive year, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among all students (nearly 2.6 million), followed by cigars (500,000), cigarettes (440,000), smokeless tobacco (330,000), hookahs (290,000), nicotine pouches (280,000), heated tobacco products (260,000), and pipe tobacco (150 000). Nearly one third of the students using tobacco products admitted using multiple tobacco products in the past 30 days.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in adults and usually starts during youth and young adulthood. Factors that contribute to youth tobacco product use include misperceptions of the harm associated with tobacco and the marketing of flavored and novel e-cigarettes that look like toys, food, or cartoon characters.

Possible solutions include enforcing the federal minimum age of sale of 21years for all tobacco produces, restricting the sales of flavored products, a federal ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, rising the prices of tobacco products, and mass media educational campaigns to warn about the dangers of tobacco products.

References

Stephenson J. More Than 3 Million US Middle, High School Students Using Tobacco Products in 2022, JAMA Network, November 29, 2022;3(11):e225145. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.5145

Park-Lee E, Ren C, Cooper M, Cornelius M, Jamal A, Cullen KA. Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:1429–1435. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7145a1

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