Vaping Epidemic? Really?

[ZenAnarchi]

According to the newest survey, only about one in ten American youths are vaping. That’s with the incredibly lax enforcement etc in the States. Guess they’ll have to call off the Epidemic

https://apnews.com/article/d1f44bd3d8df6960215a14454f5e2e6e

 

[Crispycritters]

You never know how these surveys are undertaken. Sometimes it can be anyone who has ever taken a puff on a vape out of curiosity can be categorised as 'a vaper' even if they took one hit, coughed their guts up and said 'nope, not for me', and teens tend to be curious and open to experimentation, so who knows what the real number is. Sometimes 'epidemics' are politically motivated

 

[MarylinC37]

The only 'epidemic' is of young people finding something safer to try out than smoking or illicit drugs.

 

[JohnNada]

As a youth, if someone asked me to take a survey on my illegal activity I certainly wouldn't have answered honestly.

 

[Toby iVapour]

You never know how these surveys are undertaken. Sometimes it can be anyone who has ever taken a puff on a vape out of curiosity can be categorised as 'a vaper'...

High school past 30-day vaping 2023 is down quite sharply, from 14.1 to 10.0 per cent compared to 2022.
Frequent vaping (≥ 20 days per month) as a share of total vaping is down from 46.0% to 39.7%.
In absolute numbers, frequent vaping is down from 980,000 to 620,000 (a 37% decline). Daily vaping is down from 620,000 to 460,000 (-26%)

More analysis of the new US NYTS youth smoking and vaping data from Clive Bates here -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...oOa0m18P-P73zR-cmxrAYSOi3V1PFaPkvv3FrWCNe/pub

Smoking is now increasingly rare in teens, and it’s likely that the vast majority of this cohort will never become smokers. So I think we will be seeing the end of cigarettes as today's young people age into adulthood. One generation at a time, the cigarette is becoming obsolete.

It’s quite likely that many of those adolescents still vaping would otherwise be smoking and that their vaping is net beneficial. But the published data doesn’t allow us to calculate that.

I hope this will allow the political space for a rethink and refocus of policy and what matters - cutting smoking as deeply and rapidly as possible and taking advantage of vapes to bring on the end of smoking without delay.