Teen vaping rates rise, nearing pre-pandemic levels, CDC reports
Around 2.5 million teens report vaping, and vaping rates are nearing pre-pandemic levels. Flavored disposable e-cigarettes are popular among teens.
Teen vaping rates are rising once again, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday — a signal that as kids have returned to school, so has their use of e-cigarettes.
Data from the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey showed that 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students said they'd recently used an e-cigarette or other vape product. The survey, led by both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, was conducted from January through the end of May.
The vast majority of surveyed youths, 84.5%, said they used flavored e-cigarettes, most often in fruity or other sweet flavors.
Linda Neff, the chief of the epidemiology branch of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said the new numbers show that this year, 2.55 million middle and high school students in the U.S. reporting vaping.
"These numbers confirm that the e-cigarette epidemic in our country is far from over," Neff said. "Our work is far from done.
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