US CDC Survey Finds No Teen Vaping Epidemic

Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates) Nancy Loucas, discusses the findings from a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) indicating that youth vaping rates have dropped to pre-pandemic levels.

Diane Caruana

January 27, 2023

The study found that 9.4% of middle and high schoolers surveyed reported currently vaping. In 2019 this figure was at 20%, and in 2020, 13.1%.

“Alarm bells about a United States’ youth vaping epidemic have now been proven to be false,” said Loucas on discussing the findings. “CAPHRA has long been calling out Bloomberg’s anti-vaping and anti-nicotine activism. We now have government data that completely contradicts their claims of an exploding youth vaping epidemic,” she added.

Titled ‘Notes from the Field: E-cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2022’, the study found that 9.4% of middle and high schoolers surveyed reported currently vaping. In 2019 this figure was at 20%, and in 2020, 13.1%.

“When you look at just middle school students, just 3.3% are vaping. That’s not an epidemic! It’s no wonder the CDC continues to delay publishing results from its latest Youth Risk Behaviour Survey (YRBS). The falling trend would only prove to legislators that any talk of a youth vaping epidemic is purely imaginative,” said Loucas.

Vape flavours are not to blame

She added that claims that vape flavours are addicting kids to vapes has been proven inaccurate, as nearly half of the youth surveyed cited curiosity as the reason for trying vapes. In fact the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) showed that only 13.2% of current youth e-cigarette users cited using them because of flavours.

“Politicians around the world are under pressure to restrict access and flavours. They need to understand that the reason the CDC is increasingly hiding vaping data is because it doesn’t suit funders like Bloomberg and their anti-vaping activism,” said Loucas.