The
2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey (link here) offers a wealth of critical
data. In last week’s blog entry I noted that underage vaping increased over the
prior year, as the number of frequent “virgin” vapers (those who never used
other tobacco products and used e-cigarettes 20-30 days in the past month) rose
from 95,000 to 172,000. This negative
news was accompanied by a dramatic decline in
the use of cigarettes (2.6% to 0.8%) from 2018 to 2019, indicating that the
eradication of teen smoking is within reach.
Recently, Congress enacted Tobacco 21
legislation, which the FDA implemented in December. The agency also announced a partial ban on
e-cigarette flavors.
The 2019 NYTS survey collected information from
high school vapers that is relevant to these policies. It asked, (1) “where did you get or buy the
e-cigarettes that you have used” (during the past 30 days); and (2) “what are
the reasons you have used e-cigarettes?”
The results for underage current vapers are shown in the accompanying
tables. The percentages don’t add to
100, because participants could select more than one response for each
question. So the numbers indicate the
relative importance of the various sources (i.e. friends versus a grocery store).
| Table 1. Where Did Underage Vapers Get or Buy Their E-Cigarettes? | |
|---|---|
| People | |
| Friend | 62% |
| Other person | 14% |
| Family member | 10% |
| Places | |
| Gas station/Conv store | 17% |
| Vape shop | 13% |
| Internet | 7% |
| Other place | 6% |
| Drug store | 2.9% |
| Mall | 2.8% |
| Grocery store | 2.4% |
Clearly, most underage teens get their vape products from friends (62%), family members (14%) and/or “others” (10%). I endorsed Tobacco 21 a year ago principally because it will diminish the black market supply by eliminating legal (age 18+) tobacco purchasers in the nation’s high schools.
Retailers
supply significantly less vape products to underage teens. Gas stations and convenience stores are the
most popular in this category, with vape shops a strong second. The internet was cited as a source by only 6%
of underage vapers, while other brick-and-mortar stores were chosen less
frequently.
| Table 2. Reasons Underage Vapers Used E-Cigarettes | |
|---|---|
| Curious about them | 50% |
| Use them to do tricks | 24% |
| Available in flavors | 23% |
| Friend/family member used them | 21% |
| Use them unnoticed at home/school | 18% |
| Other reason | 18% |
| Less harmful than other tobacco | 17% |
| Peer pressured into use | 8.9% |
| Try to quit other tobacco | 7.4% |
| Easier to get than other tobacco | 6.3% |
| Cost less than other tobacco | 5.5% |
| People on TV/online/movies use them | 4.1% |
Unsurprisingly, underage teen vapers were mainly motivated by curiosity (50%). That may be a response to the FDA’s poorly crafted vaping epidemic ad campaign, which was translated recently by Clive Bates: “Hey, time to get with the program. All kids, especially cooler kids are doing it...Everyone else is at it, except you...”
Flavors
(23%), with which the FDA is obsessed, placed in the second tier of reasons,
along with tricks (24%). Friends and family, it turns out, are not just
important suppliers, but significant influencers (21%), especially when
combined with peer pressure (8.9%). Friends
and family are, in fact, dominant factors for all risky behaviors, but unlike retailers, they cannot be controlled by government
regulation.
Clive
Bates interpreted another portion of the FDA campaign as “… you can keep it
hidden from mom,” and sure enough, the NYTS shows their use of vape products
goes unnoticed (18%). Additionally,
despite a barrage of misinformation about exaggerated and fake e-cigarette
illnesses, some underage vapers act on scientific reality, saying they use
e-cigarettes because they are less harmful than other tobacco products (17%).
