HealthDay News — According to a report published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, fewer teens are vaping for the first time since the US government began tracking electronic-cigarette use among American youth.
The drop was significant, decreasing from 3 million in 2015 to 2.2 million in 2016, according to the report. E-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product, Brian King, PhD, deputy director of research translation in the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, told HealthDay. That has been the case for three consecutive years, he said. Among high school students, 11.3% said they used e-cigarettes, as did 4.3% of middle school students.
In 2016, the most commonly used products among high school students after e-cigarettes were: cigarettes (8.0%), cigars (7.7%), smokeless tobacco (5.8%), hookah (4.8%), pipe tobacco (1.4%), and bidis (0.5%).
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In 2016, the most commonly used products among middle school students after e-cigarettes were: cigarettes (2.2%), cigars (2.2%), smokeless tobacco (2.2%), hookah (2.0%), pipe tobacco (0.7%), and bidis (0.3%).
Among white and Hispanic high school students, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used product. Among black high school students, cigars were the most commonly used product. More whites than blacks smoked cigarettes, and whites used more smokeless tobacco than others.
“We have some good news, and we have some bad news,” King said. “The good news is that the use of any tobacco product has declined in 2015 to 2016.” In 2015, 4.7 million teens used tobacco products, but that number dropped to 3.9 million in 2016. “However, on balance the bad news is that we’ve still got 4 million teenagers using tobacco,” he said.
Reference
Jamal A, Gentzke A, Hu SS, et al. “Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2016.” Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2017;66: 597–603. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6623a1
