Tobacco Consumption Among Teenagers Dwindling for the First Time in a Few Years

Both e-cigarette and tobacco use has decreased among teenagers

(Mirror Daily, United States) – A new CDC report states that teenagers use now less e-cigarettes than they used to. In fact, this is the first time in years when the number of vaping high school students drops. Fortunately, not only electronic smoking devices are concerned, but the consumption of all tobacco products has decreased.

Every year, high school students voluntarily participate to surveys, where they fill in questionnaires regarding their tobacco use. After comparing surveys from several years, they noticed how the number of teenagers who use e-cigarettes or other products containing tobacco is now smaller.

Less teen smokers than in previous years, but their numbers are still high

The report was published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Brian King, the director of research for the Smoking and Health CDC office, said that the reports brings both good and bad news regarding tobacco consumption among teenagers.

The good news, as mentioned above, is the fact that the number of high schoolers who use both e-cigarettes and other tobacco products has significantly decreased over the last few years. On the other hand, the bad news is the number of underage smokers is still high. Around 3.9 million young people consume tobacco in the US.

CDC campaigns against smoking might have reduced tobacco consumption

Until 2016, many youths gave up smoking, but tobacco consumption remained quite constant. This happened because most of them switched to e-cigarettes. Therefore, only 20 percent of high school students and 7 percent of middle schoolers in the survey continued to smoke. Since officials started imposing stricter regulations on the commercialization of such products, the number of teen smokers has started dwindling.

Apart from limiting the access of teens to tobacco products in stores, CDC also launched a campaign called The Real Cost, where they presented the frightening effects that long-term cigarette use has on the body. They believe that this strategy also contributed to the declining numbers. Fortunately, teen smoking rates keep decreasing, and youths learn how harmful cigarettes can be.
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Melissa Gansler

Melissa calls herself Poet, essayist, and naturalist. Graduated from the University of Michigan, Melissa holds a degree in Literature. Besides English, she can also speak Chinese, German, French.