Juul is now not the most well-liked e-cigarette model amongst US youngsters

D.Disposable e-cigarettes like Puff Bar at the moment are much more common with youngsters than the pod-based merchandise of the as soon as dominant Juul model, based on new information from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) and the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) ).

Annually the CDC and FDA survey 1000’s of US center and highschool college students about their use of tobacco merchandise, together with e-cigarettes, which ought to present grownup people who smoke with a much less harmful different to cigarettes however which have grow to be common amongst minors in recent times Customers. The 2021 version was completely performed in the course of the pandemic, that means some teenagers accomplished the survey at house as an alternative of their normal school rooms. Due to this, the report’s authors warning that it shouldn’t be immediately in comparison with earlier surveys.

Regardless of this caveat, the report exhibits important adjustments in teenage vaping habits in the course of the pandemic. About 11% of highschool college students and three% of center college college students stated they vaped within the 30 days main as much as the survey – properly beneath the 20% and 5%, respectively, who stated they did within the earlier 12 months. That is doubtless partially as a result of distance studying has impacted scholar entry to e-cigarettes, based on the report’s authors, so there is no such thing as a assure that the downward pattern will proceed sooner or later.

Teenage e-cigarette preferences are additionally altering dramatically. Juul – an organization that makes flash drive-like gadgets that run on pre-filled nicotine e-liquids – has been thought-about the most well-liked model amongst youngsters for years and has drawn criticism for advertising that appeals to youngsters. (The corporate has repeatedly denied it ever intentionally focused youngsters.)

However within the new report, greater than half of the scholars who vaped stated they used disposable e-cigarettes, whereas about 29% stated they used pod-based merchandise. Roughly 85% of teenage vapers used merchandise in flavors like fruit, sweet, and mint. Lower than 6% of highschool vapers stated Juul was their model of selection, in comparison with 26% who used merchandise from Puff Bar – a model that makes disposable e-cigarettes in flavors like Blue Razz and Watermelon. The FDA tried to take Puff Bar off the market in 2020 for violating regulatory necessities, nevertheless it re-emerged this 12 months with a kind of laboratory-made nicotine that some within the vaping trade argue the FDA can don’t regulate. Puff Bar didn’t reply to TIME’s request for remark.

Single-use merchandise are usually not as tightly regulated as pod-based merchandise like Juul’s, which may clarify a part of the shift in youngsters’ preferences. In early 2020, the FDA banned the sale of all flavored pods that hadn’t obtained company approval in hopes of mitigating the vaping pattern amongst youngsters. That is why manufacturers like Juul solely promote liquids with menthol and tobacco flavors. The ban was controversial as many grownup e-cigarette customers additionally want flavored merchandise. It did not prolong to single-use vapes, which is why they’re nonetheless obtainable in a spread of flavors.

Nevertheless, that can not be true for lengthy. Final September, all US e-cigarette producers have been alleged to submit submissions proving that their merchandise have been good for public well being – that they could possibly be helpful sufficient for grownup people who smoke to evaluate their potential well being dangers or their recognition with youngsters and leisure customers to predominate. Up to now, the FDA has denied greater than 1,000,000 purposes for flavored e-cigarettes, that means they’ll now not be legally bought within the U.S. tobacco firm RJ Reynolds.

Specifically, Juul’s utility has drawn conviction from many public well being teams which have urged the FDA to oppose it due to the corporate’s function within the teenage vaping disaster. Juul might have helped spark this drawback – however as the brand new federal information exhibits, that spark has largely burned out.

Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com.