TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The current high school cigarette smoking rate is the lowest it has ever been in the state, according to new data from the Florida Department of Health’s Florida Youth Tobacco Survey.
This comes amid skyrocketing vaping rates among youth, but Tobacco Free Florida hopes some of the same strategies used to lower cigarette smoking rates may help in the effort to tackle the vaping crisis.
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Tobacco Free Florida said the new data shows cigarette smoking rates among high school students dropped from 3.5% to 2.1% over the last year.
“Which is a historic low for us. It's an 86% decrease since 2007,” said Bureau Chief of Tobacco Free Florida Laura Corbin.
At the same time, youth vaping rates are skyrocketing. Statistics show 1 in 4 teens use vaping devices, but Attorney General Ashley Moody believes the numbers don’t reflect reality.
“If you talk to the students one on one and get them to put their phones down for a moment, they'll tell you more than that,” Moody said.
Corbin said the drop in cigarette smoking isn’t necessarily related to the rise of vaping, as cigarette smoking rates have been steadily dropping even before the vaping crisis.
“The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has attributed the recent rise in youth vaping to flavors (and) the high nicotine content,” Corbin said.
Moody said she’ll be asking the Florida Legislature to free up additional funds for anti-vaping campaigns during the 2020 session.
“We saw the success with smoking traditional combustibles. It can be replicated. Our Legislature just needs to make sure the funding is there,” Moody said.
Moody also announced she’s opened an investigation into more than 20 vaping companies to find whether they intentionally marketed to children.
"The purpose of that investigation is always to determine whether there is a next step that needs to be taken,” Moody said.
That next step could be a lawsuit similar to the one that produced the 1997 tobacco settlement, which now funds Tobacco Free Florida.
In addition, the attorney general is advocating for a ban on flavored vape products and two-factor age verification for online vape purchases.
She has not endorsed the idea of raising the age to purchase nicotine products to 21, which is the goal of a bill that has been filed in the Florida House.
Eighteen states and more than 500 municipalities, including two in Florida, have already raised the age.