Fewer middle and high school students are using tobacco this year than last year. That’s according to a newly released government health study, which found those decreases are driven by fewer younger people using e-cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco.
The study found nearly one in four high school students, or 3.65 million of them, were current tobacco users in 2020. That’s down about 25 percent compared to one in three in 2019. About one in 15 middle students, or 800,000, were current users of tobacco products in 2020, down nearly 50 percent from roughly one in eight students in 2019.
For the seventh consecutive year, researchers found that e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among both middle and high school students. Also, many young people use more than one tobacco product, which is a concern for health officials.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said while the decreased use of tobacco is a win, there are still nearly 4.6 million young people using tobacco products. That, Redfield said, puts a new generation at risk for nicotine and other health concerns, so the work to educate young people and enforce laws on tobacco sales continues.
To view the study’s complete findings, click here.