Nico Teen: One in TEN middle and high school students are addicted to vaping or cigarettes, according to a CDC study

More than one in 10 middle and high school students are addicted to vaping or cigarettes, official data showed today – amid calls to crack down on the devices.

In the annual CDC-FDA survey, a total of 3.08 million children between the ages of 11 and 18 admitted to using tobacco products in the past month.

Eight in ten said they smoked vapes, which are already embroiled in controversy over concerns they represent a gateway to smoking among teenagers.

Nearly a third also told surveyors they used multiple tobacco products, which the CDC said were “of particular concern.”

This week it was revealed that children start vaping at an average age of 13 – and one in ten users starts smoking before breakfast.

Officials have warned that tobacco products are a “threat” to children’s health and “unsafe” for them.

Previous studies have shown that vaping can stunt brain development in teenagers, putting them on the path to lifelong nicotine addiction.

Tobacco use among young people rose 23 percent year-on-year, but was still below the pre-pandemic estimate of 4.45 million.

Cigar use rose 31 percent year-on-year to 500,000 children, while cigarette use rose seven percent to 440,000.

White kids were the most likely to vape, along with those most likely to get F grades or identify as trans or LGBT.

It comes after California voted yesterday to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored vapes, with the rule taking effect next month.

The CDC-FDA-led study also found that children who received the most Fs were the most likely to vape or use another tobacco product. A class of students had the least chance of getting

Dr. Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, criticized tobacco companies today.

“Commercial use of tobacco products continues to threaten the health of our nation’s youth,” she said, “and disparities in youth use of tobacco products persist.”

“By addressing the factors that lead to tobacco use among young people and by helping young people to quit smoking, we can give our country’s young people the best chance at a healthier life.”

The annual CDC and FDA led report is done every year.

The study asked a nationally representative sample of 28,000 middle and high school students if they used tobacco.

Responses are analyzed to produce countrywide estimates.

The children were interviewed from January to May this year.

The results showed that tobacco use increased across the board compared to 2021.

However, the researchers cautioned against comparing it to last year because Covid restrictions required the survey to be done at home – which may have affected the results. In all other years it was performed in classrooms.

Compared to 2020 – when the survey was conducted before the Covid outbreak – tobacco use fell by almost a third from 4.45 million.

E-cigarette use also fell by 29 percent – ​​by 3.58 million young people – and cigarette use fell by 50 percent – ​​by 900,000 teenagers.

In the past five years, tobacco use was at its highest in 2019, when an estimated 6.2 million children used at least one product in the previous month.

The United States banned the sale of e-cigarettes to children under the age of 18 in 2016 and the sale of cigarettes to youths under the age of 21 in 2019.

But the ban is poorly enforced, meaning minors can still get the tobacco products.

Dr. Brian King, director of the FDA’s Tobacco Products Center, said it was “clear that we have made commendable progress in reducing cigarette smoking among our nation’s youth.”

However, he added: “But we must continue to address all forms of youth tobacco use, including meaningfully addressing the significant disparities that remain.”

The data is published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

It comes after a major study found that the average teenage vaper starts using e-cigarettes at the age of 13.

An analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) revealed the epidemic of e-cigarettes among teenagers in the country.

The findings are based on a new analysis of survey data originally released last month, covering 150,000 responses from US teens aged 12 to 18 from 2014 to 2021.

This suggests that vape devices have become the gateway to nicotine addiction, with nearly 80 percent of users reporting their first experience with e-cigarettes. That number has remained constant since 2019 and has increased from around 40 percent in 2016.

One in 10 students who vaped beeped at the device within five minutes of waking up — 10 times as many in just five years — suggesting an addiction, experts say. Vapers are also increasingly using the devices, with a quarter using them every day – a fifth in a year.