Youth and Tobacco

Almost 90 percent of adult daily smokers started smoking by the age of 18,¹ and nearly 2,500 youth under 18 smoke their first cigarette every day in the U.S.² In fact, use of tobacco products, no matter what type, is almost always started and established during adolescence when the developing brain is most vulnerable to nicotine addiction.^3,4 If the current trajectory of smoking rates continues, 5.6 million children in the U.S. alive today will die prematurely as a result of smoking.⁵ 

These facts highlight a critical need for stronger, more targeted youth tobacco prevention efforts grounded in regulatory actions designed to protect America’s kids.

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FDA's Plan for Tobacco and Nicotine Regulation

On July 28, 2017, the FDA announced a comprehensive plan for tobacco and nicotine regulation that places nicotine, and the issue of addiction, at the center of the agency's tobacco regulation efforts. This plan will serve as a multiyear roadmap to better protect kids and significantly reduce tobacco-related disease and death in the U.S. One of the key efforts announced includes starting a national public dialogue about lowering nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels to decrease the likelihood that future generations become addicted to cigarettes. 

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Understanding Youth Tobacco Use in the U.S.

The FDA is committed to a science-based approach that addresses public health issues associated with tobacco use. That's why we collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health on the only nationally-representative survey of middle and high school students that focuses exclusively on tobacco use—the National Youth Tobacco Survey. Results from this survey provide the FDA with some key national indicators of the effectiveness of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs.

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Public Health Education to Reduce Youth Tobacco Use

After decades of steadily declining rates, youth tobacco use has largely plateaued since 2011. While cigarette and cigar use have generally declined, sharp increases in e-cigarette and hookah tobacco use among teens in previous years have offset progress overall.⁶ 

Further, youth who use tobacco today do so despite the efforts that led so many of their peers to remain tobacco-free in the past, making them a harder audience to reach and motivate with tobacco prevention messages.⁷  

With these challenges in mind, the FDA developed and launched several award-winning youth tobacco prevention campaigns to educate at-risk teens about the harmful effects of tobacco use. Campaign advertising airing between 2014 and 2017 focused on communicating the dangers of combustible cigarettes and smokeless tobacco use. In fall 2017, the FDA launched new advertising as part of its “The Real Cost” campaign to educate teens about the dangers of using electronic nicotine delivery systems, like e-cigarettes. Many e-cigarettes contain nicotine, the same highly addictive chemical in other tobacco products, which can disrupt adolescent brain development. 

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Flavored Tobacco

In 2017, the FDA intends to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek public comment on the role that flavors in tobacco products—including menthol—play in attracting youth. The agency already banned certain characterizing flavors in cigarettes in 2009, including fruit and clove , because of their appeal to youth. The agency's national effort to enforce this provision of the Tobacco Control Act and to advise parents about the dangers of flavored tobacco products was one of its important first steps toward responsible tobacco regulation to protect youth.

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Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products to Protect Children and Adolescents

Since 2009, the FDA has regulated cigarettes, smokeless, and roll-your-own tobacco. In 2016, the FDA finalized a rule to regulate all tobacco products, including:

• E-cigarettes/electronic cigarettes/vaporizers
• Cigars
• Hookah (waterpipe tobacco)
• Pipe tobacco
• Nicotine gels
• Dissolvables

These rules protect children and adolescents by restricting youth access to all tobacco products by:

• Not allowing products to be sold to anyone younger than 18 and requiring age verification via photo ID
• Not allowing tobacco products to be sold in vending machines (unless in an adult-only facility)
• Not allowing the distribution of free samples of tobacco products

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