Report calls for more prevention efforts to reduce teen tobacco use

Given the steady use of tobacco products among middle school and high school students nationally, researchers are calling for greater resources for prevention efforts (Source: “Public Health Alerts: E-cigarette and nicotine pouch use among youth, United States, 2025,” CIDRAP, Oct. 5).
 
“Continued federal, state, and local infrastructure to support youth tobacco prevention, including surveillance of youth tobacco use behaviors, remains critical in the context of rapid changes in tobacco product availability and use,” according to a New England Journal of Medicine Public Health Alert released this week.
 
Data included in the alert shows that 13.4% of U.S. middle school and high school students had ever used e-cigarettes and 4.1% had ever used nicotine pouches, while 5.2% currently use e-cigarettes and 1.7% currently use nicotine pouches.
 
Rates were higher in high school students, with 17.9% having ever used e-cigarettes and 7.1% currently using them, compared with 5.7% and 2.3%, respectively, for nicotine pouch use.
 
“Nearly all youth who used e-cigarettes or nicotine pouches used flavored products, especially fruit-flavored e-cigarettes and mint-flavored nicotine pouches,” wrote the authors, who are from the CDC Foundation and Rutgers University.
 
Last month, HPIO released a policy explainer titled “Updating Ohio’s Tobacco Policy to Address Nicotine Pouch Use,” which highlights what is known and unknown about nicotine pouch use in Ohio and describes current policy surrounding nicotine pouches.