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The consumption of teenage vapors is reaching epidemic levels and the FDA is considering regulating this phenomenon. One proposal would be to ban the flavoring of electronic cigarette liquids.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI

The new anti-vapors campaign of The Food and Drug Administration begins Tuesday.(Photo: Food and Drug Administration)

The Food and Drug Administration will launch a public service campaign against young people Tuesday that will try new ways to reach young people who have become addicted to nicotine.

The FDA will place ads in 10,000 school bathrooms and on websites, officials said. The agency will use geolocation, which allows marketers to reach people in specific locations, to reach middle and high school populations.

New campaign comes days after FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's statement last week vaping has become an "epidemic".

Gottlieb has announced a crackdown on vape retailers and a possible ban on flavored e-liquid if five of the largest manufacturers can not come up with adequate plans to keep electronic cigarettes out of reach of under-18s.

The "Real Cost" campaign targets nearly 10.7 million young people aged 12 to 17 who have used electronic cigarettes or are willing to try them.

The posters will appear in thousands of school bathrooms, says Gottlieb, because "we know that many teens use e-cigarettes or face pressure from their peers."

"Impactful" advertising, which will detail the dangerous chemicals that e-cigarettes may contain, will also appear on social media and popular teen websites, including YouTube, Pandora and Instagram.

A series of videos tries to show the chemicals spreading like a snake-like creature across the body. Another, which shows the replacement of young people's mouths with devices, highlights how nicotine reprograms the brain to ask for more.

Vaping was designed as a way to help adult smokers quit smoking by providing them with nicotine-based treatment without the carcinogenic properties of smoking.

But fruits and other flavors and models of compact and stylish electronic cigarettes have attracted young people to vaping, and public health officials have noticed sharp increases in recent years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2 million high school, high school and college students use battery-powered devices to heat liquid-based nicotine into inhalable vapor. National Survey of Youth Smoking 2017.

According to the CDC survey, nearly 12% of high school students and 3% of college students have used the device in the last 30 days.

Hailey Boyce was seriously injured when an electronic device exploded while she was smoking on the weekend of Mother's Day 2016. (Photo: Nick Oza, USA TODAY Network)

But preliminary federal data show that high school students' vaping has increased by about 75% this year, which would result in the use of more than 20% of this age group.

Worse, almost all youth smoking trends "are going in the wrong direction," Gottlieb told USA TODAY on Monday. This includes the use of traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.

For this reason, the agency plans to quickly release the report on youth smoking from 2018 this year, according to Gottlieb, and will release it within the next two months.

Children who use electronic cigarettes are more likely to try traditional cigarettes, says Gottlieb.

More: FDA declares youth epidemic, announces investigation, new application

More: Teenagers hooked by vaping: the FDA suspects a ban on flavored electronic cigarette liquids

More: For juul or not for juul? That's what you should talk to your teen about

"And that compromises the extraordinary gains in public health we have achieved by reducing smoking rates in this country." he said.

The FDA said last week that it was looking into whether the makers of some electronic cigarettes were selling new products that were not on the market on August 8, 2016.

Products introduced after this date must undergo a rigorous scientific review process before being approved.

A coalition of public health groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Children, said last month that some major manufacturers have flouted the mandate.

The FDA says it is considering ways to make tobacco products "less toxic, attractive, and addictive," especially for young people.

According to the agency, this could include the elimination of flavors and product designs that appeal to young people and the addition of child-protection packaging and new labeling.

The new advertising campaign is funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry – not by taxpayers, the FDA said. When tested with focus groups, the campaign was one of the most effective tobacco-related campaigns the agency has done, according to Gottlieb.

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