FDA's New E-Cigarette Campaign


The Food and Drug Administration has launched an ad campaign targeting teen e-cigarette usage. This comes on the coattails of a major assault on the electronic cigarette industry. The FDA just recently released thousands of warning letters to e-cigarette companies that the FDA says are marketing to teens and adolescents.

In the ads released Tuesday, the FDA has wording like, “Vaping can put dangerous chemicals, like diacetyl, into your lungs.” The goal is to demonstrate to kids that vaping is not as harmless as it may seem just because it is not a traditional cigarette. The FDA is now referring to teen e-cigarette use “an epidemic” and states that e-cigarettes are now the most used tobacco product by young people.

The use of e-cigarettes amongst teens has risen from about 1.5% of high school students in 2011 to 12% in 2017 according to the CDC. More than 2.1 million high school students in 2017.

The ads were shown to an adult focus group and found to keep adults from using e-cigarettes to quit smoking. FDA has decided to limit the exposure of these ads to teens on social media so as not to prevent adult smokers from using e-cigarettes as a cessation aid.