Are teens finally ditching vaping? New data show lowest levels in a decade

Youth vaping levels fell to the lowest in a decade this year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

E-cigarette use among middle and high school students dropped from 2.13 million students in 2023 to 1.63 million students in 2024, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, published Thursday.

The total is now about one-third of its 2019 peak, health officials said, when numbers totaled more than 5 million.

The latest survey ran from Jan. 22 through May 22 and included nearly 30,000 students.

“These data are a good reminder that we’re making progress in terms of continued declines of the leading tobacco products used among kids,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said on a call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. “But we’ve got to keep our guard up.”

The decrease was mainly driven by a drop in e-cigarette use among high school students, which fell from 1.56 million students to 1.21 million. There wasn’t a significant difference in use among middle school students in the past year, according to the survey — although King noted that use among middle school students has been falling since 2019.

King attributed the overall decline in part to legal steps the FDA took in partnership with the Justice Department to curb use.

Since early 2023, the FDA has issued more than 1,000 warning letters and 240 civil penalties to retailers — as well as others in the supply chain — selling Elf Bar products illegally to teens, according to a release. Elf Bar makes fruit- and candy-flavored disposable vapes that are popular among teens.