Youth use of nicotine containing products remains an important concern and understanding patterns of youth use over time is key to the design and implementation of comprehensive youth access and prevention programs. Electronic cigarettes (ENDS) are recorded as the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youths ; however, limited information exists on the e-cigarette product types and brands used by youths. In support of understanding patterns of any inappropriate youth use, we analyzed data from the NYTS 2020.

In 2020, among the 11.32% of youth reporting any past 30-day ENDS use, 3.93% were tobacco-naïve (i.e. who reported neither trying a tobacco product in the past nor any concurrent tobacco product co-use in past 30 days). 0.1% of tobacco-naïve ENDS users reported becoming established smokers after using ENDS products.

By looking at by brands used specifically, 0.12% reported using a blu ENDS product at any point in the past 30 days, corresponding to 13 respondents among the entire NYTS sample. Of this, 0.028% were tobacco-naïve, corresponding to 4 respondents among the 14,531 respondent of the NYTS sample. By comparison, in NYTS 2019, 111 participants out of 19,018 reported to have used blu ENDS during the past 30 days. In 2019, one respondent reported becoming an established smoker after using ENDS including blu products, compared to no respondents in 2020. Wang TW, Neff LJ, Park-Lee E, Ren C, Cullen KA, King BA. E-cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1310–1312. National Youth Tobacco Survey. 2020. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/surveys/nyts/data/index.htm