The FDA Releases Its First Anti-E-Cigarette TV Advertisement!

On July 22, 2019, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration—the United States agency responsible for food and drugs) shared some encouraging news in its announcements. In an announcement about e-cigarettes , electronic devices that imitate smoking, the FDA announced that it had launched TV advertisements to protect young people. The main reason was that e-cigarette use among high school students rose from 11.7% in 2017 to 20.8% by 2018, an increase of 78 percent in a very short time .

In the United States, among those aged 12-17, approximately 10.7 million students have either tried e-cigarettes or are open to trying them!

To prevent increasing e-cigarette use and the associated rise in conventional cigarette use, the United States began public education efforts for the first time in September 2018. Anti-e-cigarette messages were published on digital platforms and social media channels. As the campaign’s anniversary approached, the FDA decided it needed to expand the campaign to include TV advertisements. In advertisements intended to reach 10.7 million young people aged 12-17, the FDA wanted to use a memorable approach and partnered with the popular street magician Julius Dein . In the videos, Dein turns an e-cigarette into a real cigarette, illustrating the transition from e-cigarettes to conventional cigarettes with these words: “This is not magic; this is a statistic...”

Note: Turkish subtitles are available for the video.

Use Has Approached 5% Even Among Middle School Students

Studies show that young people and adults who use e-cigarettes have a high rate of subsequently switching to regular cigarettes . In other words, the fight against smoking and the progress made since the 20th century are under threat of being erased. JAMA and other leading medical journals, along with a 2018 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, published research showing that young e-cigarette users have a high likelihood of developing nicotine addiction and subsequently switching to conventional cigarettes. This prompted the FDA to take action. In 2017, middle school students used e-cigarettes at a rate of 3.3%, which rose by 48 percent to 4.9% in 2018. The rise among high school students was even more striking: use was 11.7% in 2017, increased by 78 percent, and reached 20.8%. In particular, the use of flavorings with e-cigarettes was the main driver of the increase among high school students.

E-Cigarettes Support Regular Cigarettes Rather Than Compete With Them

There are false claims and beliefs that e-cigarette use will reduce overall tobacco product use. Unfortunately, however, overall tobacco product use among high school students stood at 27.1% in 2018. American youth are therefore at the highest level of tobacco use recorded in the rates regularly published by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) since 2011.

Who Would Risk Their Children’s Health for Their Own Health?!

E-cigarettes are marketed as “less harmful,” and most users have been convinced of this. Are we aware that the much wider use of these new-generation tobacco and nicotine products, believed to be less harmful, at increasingly younger ages directly threatens our children’s health?

Why Do We Consider Early Exposure to E-Cigarettes So Dangerous for Children and Young People?

Because nicotine can very easily make a developing brain dependent on it. Moreover, e-cigarettes cause irreversible lung damage through the dangerous chemicals they contain, such as acrolein . Nickel, lead and chromium are examples of toxic metal particles delivered directly to the lungs through e-cigarette use. The formaldehyde they contain is also a carcinogen.

The United States also plans to prepare anti-e-cigarette educational materials and lessons for use in schools during the 2019-2020 academic year. A simple calculation shows why: while the Youth E-Cigarette Prevention Campaign costs 60 million dollars, preventing 350,000 young people from taking up smoking would save families and the country more than 31 billion dollars by reducing smoking-related costs such as premature death, lower productivity, and disability.