CDC: high school vaping up by 78% in a year, flavours used more widely

The  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released long-anticipated new figures from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), showing a sharp year-on-year increase in the number of high school and middle school students who vape.

These numbers have been frequently cited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in support of its recent crackdowns on youth vaping, such as commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s restriction of sales channels for most flavours.

One of main findings in the latest tranche of NYTS data is that between 2017 to 2018 the proportion of U.S. high school students – aged about 14 to 18 – who reported being current e-cigarette users increased from 11.7% to 20.8%, an increase of 78% bringing the total number of high school vapers to just over 3m.