World No Tobacco Day: May 31

Observed annually on May 31st, World No Tobacco Day brings awareness to the harms of using tobacco products and promotes prevention strategies to end tobacco use in the United States. This year’s observance focuses on keeping young people tobacco free and/or helping them quit for good.  

Youth Tobacco Use: Know the Risks

Smoking causes various diseases and disabilities (e.g., heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), making it one of the leading causes of preventable disease and death in the United States.^1,2 For young people, the use of any tobacco product is unsafe. This includes e-cigarettes (also known as vapes, these are battery-operated devices that heat liquid and produce aerosol), which are the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. middle and high school students.³ E-cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive chemical that negatively affects adolescent brain development, including in the brain centers related to "attention, learning, mood, and impulse control."^4,5 They can also contain other harmful substances, including heavy metals (e.g., nickel, tin, lead), carcinogenic chemicals, and flavorings linked to lung diseases.⁶ Some research also linked nicotine use to worsening mental health symptoms, like depression and anxiety.^7,8  

Tobacco Products Are Still Widely Used by Youth

The younger a person is when they start using tobacco products, the more likely they are to become dependent on nicotine.⁹ In fact, most adults in the United States who regularly use tobacco products started before the age of 21.¹⁰ Despite the significant decline in use of tobacco products in the United States over the past 50 years, nearly 2 million adolescents (aged 12 to 17) still reported past-month tobacco use in 2022, and nearly 75% of these adolescents reported only vaping nicotine products.^11,12 Further, nearly half of middle and high school students who have ever used e-cigarettes reported using them currently, and over a quarter reported vaping daily.¹³

Tobacco Industries Are Targeting Youth

Young people may want to try an e-cigarette as a form of social experimentation, because their peers used or offered it to them, or out of curiosity.¹⁴ With this knowledge, the tobacco industry has increasingly targeted young people with advertising tactics to highlight their products—with a recent focus on e-cigarettes—and spread misconceptions related to their harms. These tactics include promoting appealing e-cigarettes flavors, like candy and fruit, and marketing these products as safe alternatives to cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. They also use digital and social media advertising; attractive marketing displays and packaging in stores; and sleek, pocket-sized designs of the devices themselves to attract young people. ¹⁵

What Can You Do To Help?

Youth vaping is a critical public health concern. Education can empower young people to make informed decisions about their long-term health (i.e., the harms and long-term negative impacts of tobacco use). Encouraging them to live tobacco-free lives—or to quit using tobacco products—is vital to countering the current youth vaping crisis.

• The Truth Initiative and Kaiser Permanente, in collaboration with the American Heart Association, launched a free, digital youth vaping prevention curriculum, Vaping: Know the truth. This self-guided, interactive curriculum provides lessons, activities, and resources to educate young people on the dangers of e-cigarette use and guidance to help them quit.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also offer resources for parents, educators, and health care providers to help initiate conversations about e-cigarettes, their risks, and their roles in protecting youth.

Visit the World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day 2024 to find out how you can get involved in this initiative—from sharing pre-made communications materials through your various networks, attending and promoting World No Tobacco Day events, and staying up to date on recent news related to tobacco use.

If you or a loved one uses tobacco, it’s never too late to quit. For free help, visit smokefree.gov or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

References

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2024, May 15a). About health effects of cigarette smoking. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/health_effects/index.htm 
² CDC. (2014). The health consequences of smoking—50 years of progress: A report of the Surgeon General. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK179276 (Note: While this report is 10 years old, most of the research still cites this statistic as the best, most recent information.) 
³ Park-Lee, E., Ren, C., Cooper, M., Cornelius, M., Jamal, A., & Cullen, K. A. (2022). Tobacco product use among middle and high school students–United States, 2022. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 71(45), 1429–1435. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7145a1 
⁴ CDC. (2024, May 15b). E-cigarette use among youth. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/youth.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/Quick-Facts-on-the-Risks-of-E-cigarettes-for-Kids-Teens-and-Young-Adults.html 
⁵ CDC. (2014).
⁶ CDC. (2024, May 15c). About e-cigarettes (vapes). https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/about.html 
⁷ Lechner, W. V., Janssen, T., Kahler, C. W., Audrain-McGovern, J., & Leventhal, A. M. (2017). Bi-directional associations of electronic and combustible cigarette use onset patterns with depressive symptoms in adolescents. Preventive Medicine , 96, 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.12.034  
⁸ Obisesan, O. H., Mirbolouk, M., Osei, A. D., Orimoloye, O. A., Uddin, S. M. I., Dzaye, O., El Shahawy, O., Al Rifai, M., Bhatnagar, A., Stokes, A., Benjamin, E. J., DeFilippis, A. P., & Blaha, M. J. (2019). Association between e-cigarette use and depression in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2016–2017. JAMA Network Open , 2(12), e1916800. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.16800 
⁹ CDC. (2012). Preventing tobacco use among youth and young adults. A report of the Surgeon General. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK99237/pdf/Bookshelf_NBK99237.pdf, p. 184.  
¹⁰ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2023) Key substance use and mental health indicators  in the United States: Results from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt42731/2022-nsduh-nnr.pdf, p. 27. 
¹¹ CDC. (2014)
¹² SAMHSA. (2023), p. 8.  
¹³ Birdsey, J., Cornelius, M., Jamal, A., Park-Lee, E., Cooper, M. R., Wang, J., Sawdey, M. D., Cullen, K. A., & Neff, L. (2023). Tobacco product use among U.S. middle and high school students–National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2023.Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , 72(44), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7244a1  
¹⁴ Gentzke, A. S., Wang, T. W., Cornelius, M., Park-Lee, E., Ren, C., Sawdey, M. D., Cullen, K. A., Loretan, C., Jamal, A., & Homa, D. M. (2022). Tobacco product use and associated factors among middle and high school students–National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. , 71(5), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7105a1 
¹⁵ World Health Organization. (2020, March 25). Tobacco: Industry tactics to attract younger generations. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/tobacco-industry-tactics-to-attract-younger-generations