John,

The CDC just released the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey – the government's annual report on how many kids are using tobacco products and why.

The bottom line: Thanks to support from advocates like you, there's been great progress that shows our campaigns are working! But youth e-cigarette use remains a serious public health problem, and it continues to be driven by the widespread availability of illegal and unauthorized flavored products that must be taken off the market. 

Here's the good news:

• E-cigarette use among U.S. high school students declined in 2023, falling to 10% from 14.1% in 2022.
• Cigarette smoking among high school students remained at a record-low 1.9%, while use of cigars (1.8%) and any smoked tobacco product (3.9%) declined.
  

These results are powerful evidence that, with the right policies and public education campaigns, we can drive down and even eliminate youth use of all tobacco products. They show that we can reduce youth e-cigarette use without a resurgence in cigarette smoking.

But there was also some very concerning news:

• Among middle school students, use of any tobacco product increased (from 4.5% to 6.6%), with a possible uptick in e-cigarette use (from 3.3% to 4.6%).
• Altogether, 2.1 million middle and high school students still use e-cigarettes.
  • Nearly 90% of them use flavored products.
  • Over 1/3 of them use e-cigarettes daily or most days, a strong sign of addiction.

This data shows that even though we're making enormous progress, we can't take our foot off of the gas.

What now?

To fully end this crisis, the FDA must clear the market of all flavored e-cigarettes.

We're pushing the FDA to quickly complete its review of e-cigarette companies' marketing applications and continue to deny applications for all flavored e-cigarettes.

We're also pushing the FDA and the Department of Justice to step up their enforcement efforts to take these products off the shelves.

States and cities must also ramp up their efforts to end the sale of flavored tobacco products.

We're running campaigns across the country to support state and local legislation. As a result, the number of kids protected from these insidious, candy-flavored tobacco products continues to grow.

You can support this critical work by making a contribution today.

You can also learn more about the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey here.

Onward,