Flavored e-cigarette sales, usage up among youths

Efforts to restrict e-cigarette flavors favored by teens may have fallen flat as new brands hit the market, according to a new report.

Fruit, candy, spice and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes that have long been popular among underage smokers have proliferated in recent years, according to data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC Foundation and the Truth Initiative.

Flavored e-cigarettes represented 41.3% of U.S. retail-store e-cigarette unit sales in December 2022, up from 29.2% in January 2020, the organizations found. Overall e-cigarette sales in the U.S. rose about 47% in the period. 

The spike in sales comes despite a federal crackdown that placed more restrictions on the flavors and marketing for tobacco products.

“The dramatic spikes in youth e-cigarette use back in 2017 and 2018, primarily driven by JUUL, showed us how quickly e-cigarette sales and use patterns can change,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Retail sales data are key to providing real-time information on the rapidly changing e-cigarette landscape, which is essential to reducing youth tobacco use.”

Citing the appeal of flavored e-cigarettes to children, the FDA announced in January 2020 that it would prohibit sales of sweet and fruit-flavored e-cigarette prefilled pods, which led to the demise of big brands like Juul and Vuse.

During January 2020 to December 2022, unit shares of prefilled cartridges decreased from 75.2% to 48.0%.

However, the flavor limitations didn’t affect disposable cigarettes, which at the end of 2019 only represented 15% of e-cigarette unit sales in U.S. retail stores, according to the data. From January 2022 to December 2022, disposable e-cigarette unit share increased from 24.7% to 51.8% of total unit sales.

They now represent more than half the U.S. e-cigarette market.

Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm the adolescent brain, which continues to develop through approximately age 25, according to the CDC. Moreover, the agency found that most popular brands of disposable e-cigarettes on the market — Puff Bar, Elf Bar, and Breeze Smoke — aren’t FDA-approved and are illegal. The FDA has only authorized disposable e-cigarette brand NJOY Daily, which comes in two tobacco flavors.

Last year, the FDA ordered Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke off the U.S. market, according to the CDC report.

“The tobacco industry is well aware that flavors appeal to and attract kids, and that young people are uniquely vulnerable to nicotine addiction,” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative. “While we are encouraged by FDA’s recent actions to curb unlawful marketing of flavored e-cigarettes, we all must work with even greater urgency to protect our nation’s youth from all flavored e-cigarettes, including disposables.”