DALLAS, September 5, 2024 — The American Heart Association, which is celebrating 100 years of lifesaving service as the world's leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health, issued the following statement in response to the released today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
"The findings released today show that important progress is being made to reduce youth tobacco use in the U.S., but there is still work to be done to keep children from using these highly addictive, dangerous products. We are encouraged that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students declined over the past year from 2.13 million (7.7%) to 1.63 million (5.9%). This is the lowest youth e-cigarette level in a decade, which can be attributed to public policies and education campaigns that keep children and adolescents from starting to use tobacco and programs to help youth quit.
"While we should remain optimistic about the decline, far too many young people still use tobacco products. Among students who use e-cigarettes, the vast majority (87.6%) use flavored products, including fruit, candy and mint. Big Tobacco knows these flavors appeal to youth and the data show that this sinister strategy works to attract and addict them.
"Industry also continues to develop new products that lure youth and adolescents. For example, the survey shows almost 500,000 youth use nicotine pouches — many reporting frequent or daily use. Like e-cigarettes, these products have appealing flavors and are heavily marketed to youth, especially on popular social media platforms. Unless the FDA takes action, we are concerned that youth use of nicotine pouches and other newer products will only increase in future years.
"These trends signal the urgent need for strong regulation and public policies that will stop the tobacco industry from targeting our nation's children with addictive products that harm health. To that end, we urge the FDA to complete its review of all premarket tobacco applications and remove all unauthorized tobacco products from the market. States and communities must also continue their efforts to prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products."
