E-cigarette use among youth and young adults: A report of the Surgeon General

This report from the U.S. Surgeon General raises public health concerns about e-cigarette use among U.S. youth and young adults. The report comes amid alarming rates of youth and young adult use of e-cigarettes; in 2015, about 1 in 6 high school students used an e-cigarette in the past month. The report finds that, while nicotine is a highly addictive drug at any age, youth and young adults are uniquely vulnerable to the long-term consequences of exposing the brain to nicotine, and concludes that youth use of nicotine in any form is unsafe. The report also finds that secondhand aerosol that is exhaled into the air by e-cigarette users can expose others to potentially harmful chemicals.
Major conclusions:
- E-cigarettes are a rapidly emerging and diversified class of products typically delivering nicotine, flavorings, and other additives to users via inhaled aerosol.
- E-cigarette use among youth and young adults has become a public health concern.
- E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.
- E-cigarette use is strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products among youth and young adults, including combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes.
- The use of products containing nicotine poses dangers to youth, pregnant women and fetuses. The use of products containing nicotine in any form among youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.
- E-cigarette aerosol is not harmless. It can contain harmful and potentially harmful ingredients, including nicotine.
- E-cigarettes are marketed by promoting flavors and using a wide variety of media channels and approaches that have been used in the past for marketing conventional tobacco products to youth and young adults.
- Action can be taken at the national, state and local levels to reduce youth and young adult use of e-cigarettes.