Identify which products teens are vaping

As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about without the tobacco industry targeting our kids with harmful vape products that come in eye-catching packaging, masquerade as everyday objects, and deliver highly concentrated nicotine that’s easily inhaled and absorbed more quickly by the body.12 Even after the FDA declared a “teen e-cigarette use epidemic” in 2018, when high school use surged by 78% between 2017 and 2018, the tobacco industry continued to market and promote vapes as a “safer” tobacco product, selling flavored tobacco products like mango and strawberry or mint crush to appeal to youth.3

While overall high school vape use rates have declined in the years since, the next generation of young people are getting hooked. As of 2023, more than 550,000 middle school students currently use e-cigarettes, and more than 20% report frequent use.4 And in California, vapes are the most commonly used tobacco product used by middle schoolers as more than 91% of students who currently vape report using flavored vapes.5

Nicotine is an addictive brain poison, and can amplify anxiety, depression, mood swings, and irritability in young people.678 Teens who vape nicotine experience negative effects on their learning ability and attention spans.8 Vapes have been engineered by the tobacco industry to maximize nicotine addictiveness with the introduction of nicotine salts which allow for higher concentrations of nicotine to be inhaled more easily and absorbed more quickly.91011 Flavors added to vapes, such as mango and strawberry, mask the harsh taste of tobacco and the presence of nicotine, making it easier for young users to start using more and more – resulting in serious damage to the brain and body.85