7 in 10 students who currently use tobacco used a flavored product

New data show importance of addressing all forms of tobacco use, including flavored products

An estimated 70 percent of U.S. middle and high school students who have used a tobacco product in the past 30 days have used at least one flavored tobacco product during this period, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Data from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) show that among students who used each of the following  tobacco products in the past 30 days (defined as current users), 63.3 percent (1.58 million) had used a flavored e-cigarette, 60.6 percent (1.02 million) had used flavored hookah tobacco, 63.5 percent (910,000) had used a flavored cigar, 58.8 percent (690,000) had used flavored smokeless tobacco, 53.6 percent (900,000) had used menthol cigarettes, and 42.3 percent (120,000) had used flavored tobacco in pipes.

About 18 percent of all high school students reported using at least one flavored product in the past 30 days; 5.8 percent reported using only non-flavored tobacco products. E-cigarettes (8.8 percent) were the most commonly used flavored tobacco product among high school students, followed by hookah (6.0 percent), cigars (5.3 percent), menthol cigarettes (5.0 percent), any smokeless tobacco (4.1 percent), and tobacco in pipes (0.7 percent).

“Flavored tobacco products are enticing a new generation of America’s youth into nicotine addiction, condemning many of them to tobacco-related disease and early death,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.  “Nicotine is not safe for the developing brain, and we must do everything we can to protect kids from a lifetime of tobacco use and nicotine dependence.”