Almost 23 percent of high school students currently
use a tobacco product, according to new data published by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
(MMWR). Of particular concern, more than 90 percent of those using a tobacco
product are using combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars,
hookahs, and pipes.
Extensive use of combustible products is of special
concern because tobacco smoking causes most of the tobacco-related disease and
death in the United States. The 50th Anniversary Surgeon
General’s Report released last January concluded that unless youth smoking
rates drop rapidly, 5.6 million youth currently aged 0 to 17 will die early
from a cigarette smoking-related illness.
“Nine out of ten smokers tried their first
cigarette by age 18,” said Tim McAfee, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the CDC’s
Office on Smoking and Health. “We must do more to prevent our youth from using
tobacco products, or we will see millions of them suffer and die prematurely as
adults. Fully implementing proven tobacco control programs would help keep our
youth from falling victim to tobacco.”
CDC’s National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) found
that in 2013, 22.9 percent of high school students and 6.5 percent of middle
school students reported using a tobacco product within the last 30 days.
Nearly half (46 percent) of all high school students and 17.7 percent of middle
school students said they had used a tobacco product at least once in their
lifetime. The survey also found that 12.6 percent of high school students say
they currently use two or more tobacco products.
Youth who say they use more than one tobacco
product are at higher risk for developing nicotine dependence that can lead to
continued smoking into adulthood. Most youth who use tobacco believe they will
be able to quit, but about three out of four high school smokers continue
smoking into adulthood.
Among all high school students, 4.5 percent
reported using e-cigarettes within the last 30 days; and 1.1 percent of middle
school students reported using e-cigarettes in the last 30 days. While the
impact of electronic cigarette use on public health remains uncertain, the 2014
Surgeon General’s report found that nicotine use can have adverse effects on
adolescent brain development. Therefore, nicotine use by youth in any form-
combusted, smokeless, or electronic- is unsafe.
Cigarettes were the most prevalent tobacco product
used by white and Hispanic high school students (14.0 percent and 13.4 percent),
although cigars were close behind (11.4 percent and 12.1 percent). Cigar use
was more prevalent than cigarette use for other races/ethnicities. Cigar
use among black high school students was nearly 50 percent higher than
cigarette use (14.7 percent vs. 9.0 percent), and more than twice as high (4.5
percent vs 1.7 percent) among black middle school students.
Cigars are currently unregulated by FDA and are
taxed at a lower rate. Some cigars are manufactured with fruit and candy
flavors prohibited in cigarettes, and sold in small quantities with youth able
to buy them at low cost.
“One effective strategy for reducing tobacco use
among youth is raising the price,” said Brian King Ph.D., a Senior Scientific
Advisor with CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The Food and Drug
Administration’s new youth-focused media campaign, “The Real Cost,” is
also expected to lead to reductions in youth tobacco use.”
Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease and death
in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. For
every death, there are about 32 Americans living with a smoking-related
disease. Besides the human cost, smoking takes a devastating toll on our
nation’s economy, costing more than $289 billion a year (including at least
$133 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in
lost productivity).
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