E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General

Details

• Personal Author:
  Murthy, Vivek H. ; Blank, Melissa D. ; Chaloupka, Frank J. ; Feirman, Shari P. ; Foulds, Jonathan ; Glasser, Allison M. ; Goniewicz, Maciej L. ; Grana, Rachel A. ; Henriksen, Lisa ; Huang, Jidong ; Katz, Lauren K. ; Leslie, Frances ; Lewis, M. Jane ; Marynak, Kristy ; Parascandola, Mark ; Pechacek, Terry F. ; Promoff, Gabbi ; Ribisl, Kurt M. ; Roeseler, April ; Samet, Jonathan M. ; Stroud, Laura R. ; Talbot, Prue ; Travers, Mark ; Weaver, Scott
• Corporate Authors:
  United States. Public Health Service. Office of the Surgeon General ; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S.). Office on Smoking and Health
• Description:
  Preface from the Surgeon General: "E-cigarette use among U.S. youth and young adults is now a major public health concern. E-cigarette use has increased considerably in recent years, growing an astounding 900% among high school students from 2011 to 2015. These products are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing conventional tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and hookahs. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain.
  
  Compared with older adults, the brain of youth and young adults is more vulnerable to the negative consequences of nicotine exposure. The effects include addiction, priming for use of other addictive substances, reduced impulse control, deficits in attention and cognition, and mood disorders. Furthermore, fetal exposure to nicotine during pregnancy can result in multiple adverse consequences, including sudden infant death syndrome, altered corpus callosum, auditory processing deficits, effects on behaviors and obesity, and deficits in attention and cognition. Ingestion of e-cigarette liquids containing nicotine can also cause acute toxicity and possibly death if the contents of refill cartridges or bottles containing nicotine are consumed.
  
  This report highlights what we know and do not know about e-cigarettes. Gaps in scientific evidence do exist, and this report is being issued while these products and their patterns of use continue to change quickly. For example, the health effects and potentially harmful doses of heated and aerosolized constituents of e-cigarette liquids—including solvents, flavorants, and toxicants—are not completely understood. However, although e-cigarettes generally emit fewer toxicants than combustible tobacco products, we know that aerosol from e-cigarettes is not harmless.
  
  Although we continue to learn more about e-cigarettes with each passing day, we currently know enough to take action to protect our nation’s young people from being harmed by these products. Previous reports of the Surgeon General have established that nearly all habitual tobacco use begins during youth and young adulthood. To prevent and reduce the use of e-cigarettes by youth and young adults, we must work together as a society. We must implement proven prevention and education strategies. Health care providers, parents, teachers, and other caregivers should advise youth about the dangers of nicotine and discourage tobacco use in any form, including e-cigarettes. They can set a positive example by being tobacco-free and encouraging those who already use these products to quit. Free help is available at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or http://www.smokefree.gov. Preventing tobacco use in any form among youth and young adults is critical to ending the tobacco epidemic in the United States." Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., M.B.A. U.S. Surgeon General
  
  This report focuses on research conducted among youth and young adults because of the implications of e-cigarette use in this population, particularly the poten- tial for future public health problems. Understanding e-cigarette use among young persons is critical because previous research suggests that about 9 in 10 adult smokers first try conventional cigarettes during adoles- cence (USDHHS 2012). Similarly, youth e-cigarette exper- imentation and use could also extend into adulthood; however, e-cigarette use in this population has not been examined in previous reports of the Surgeon General. The first Surgeon General’s report on the health conse- quences of smoking was published in 1964; of the subse- quent reports, those published in 1994 and 2012 focused solely on youth and young adults (USDHHS 1994, 2012). More recently, the 2012 report documented the evidence regarding tobacco use among youth and young adults, concluding that declines in cigarette smoking had slowed and that decreases in the use of smokeless tobacco had stalled. That report also found that the tobacco industry’s advertising and promotional activities are causal to the onset of smoking in youth and young adults and the con- tinuation of such use as adults (USDHHS 2012). However, the 2012 report was prepared before e-cigarettes were as widely promoted and used in the United States as they are now. Therefore, this 2016 report documents the scientific literature on these new products and their marketing, within the context of youth and young adults. This report also looks to the future by examining the potential impact of e-cigarette use among youth and young adults, while also summarizing the research on current use, health consequences, and marketing as it applies to youth and young adults.
  
  This report was prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the general direction of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication date estimated from document properties
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Electronic Cigarettes Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / Adverse Effects Smoking Smoking / Adverse Effects Tobacco Industry Young Adult
• Publisher:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• CIO:
  National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDHP)
• Division:
  OSH - Office on Smoking and Health
• Topic:
  Diseases & Conditions
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  295 pdf pages
• Citation:
  Suggested citation: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2016.
• Editor(s):
  Perry, Cheryl L. ; Harrell, Melissa ; Creamer, MeLisa R. ; Kelder, Steven ; King, Brian ; Norman, Leslie A. ; Taylor, Peter L. ; Eissenberg, Thomas ; Grana, Rachel A. ; Ling, Pamela ; Parascandola, Mark ; Pearson, Jennifer L. ; Samet, Jonathan M. ; Villanti, Andrea C.
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ea172536763f5573af5b1f193e290384a8084006d49839b20c5573459b4d85af17201834b95b8fd8f96f7a8e873ddb84134c70434d1867b3e426bc2b02bd8efe
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/44007/cdc_44007_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 8.48 MB ]