A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that the use of combustible tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery devices in US middle- and high-school students declined between 2015 and 2016.
The fall in the number of adolescents using tobacco products and electronic devices represents the first of any such decline since the CDC began tracking this data in 2011.
This data is welcomed by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which ERS is a member, and Executive Director of FIRS, Dr Dean Schraufnagel, MD, commented on the decline: “This is particularly important because youth are more susceptible to the effects of nicotine. Reducing exposure to tobacco in youth can help prevent lifelong addiction.”
Despite the success of US tobacco prevention programmes, FIRS observes that tobacco consumption has continued to grow in many other countries, and provides a number of recommendations to reduce the use of tobacco products around the world in its recently released The Global Impact of Respiratory Disease report.