Sales of e-cigarettes skyrocketed – requests for poison control also skyrocketed

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sales of e-cigarettes have increased by nearly 50% over the past three years, rising from 15.5 million in January 2020 to 22.7 million in December 2022.

This figure comes from a CDC analysis of data collected by a market research firm and published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Sales data comes in a separate new report from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), published by the CDC, that requests to poison control centers about young children ingesting liquid or inhaling vapors from e-cigarettes have doubled compared to a few years ago. appeared to increase.

“The surge in total e-cigarette sales from 2020 to 2022 was driven by sales of non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes such as menthol dominating the prefilled cartridge market, and fruit and candy flavors driving the disposable e-cigarette market,” said lead author of the CDC’s market analysis. , Fatma Romeh said in a statement.

Romeh pointed to data released last year from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which found that more than eight out of 10 middle and high school students who reported using e-cigarettes were buying flavored versions such as fruit or menthol.

tax, lineCompared to 2020, NJOY ranks among the top 5 best-selling e-cigarette brands nationwide by 2022, according to a new CDC report. Disposable e-cigarette manufacturers Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke moved up the rankings, overtaking Puff and My Blu in the top five.

“Dramatic surge Youth e-cigarette use Results, primarily driven by JUUL in 2017 and 2018, showed how quickly e-cigarette sales and usage patterns can change.

Sales may have slowed in recent months.

Overall monthly sales of e-cigarettes actually started to decline in May 2022, but remain at levels several million dollars higher than in early 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors of the CDC report attributed the recent decline to several factors, including efforts by health authorities. Restrict sales of flavored nicotine products.

At the federal level, the FDA has touted several moves in recent years to curb the sale of unapproved e-cigarettes. On Thursday, the FDA issued dozens of warning letters as part of a “national retail inspection blitz” to crack down on illegal sales of brands like Elf Bar.

“All participants in the supply chain, including retailers, play a role in keeping illegal e-cigarettes off the shelf,” Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.

Some state and local governments have also attempted to restrict the sale of flavored e-cigarettes. A CDC analysis released earlier this year indicated a statewide ban. in Massachusetts There, sales of flavored vapes plummeted by 94%.

However, the agency’s authors acknowledged that other factors may also have contributed to the slowdown in sales, including the “recent proliferation of oversized disposable e-cigarettes” that can produce larger or larger doses with each purchase.

Data licensed from market research firm Information Resources, Inc. is also limited to traditional brick-and-mortar retail sales.

This does not mean that some sales will actually decline, the authors conceded, but that they may be moving elsewhere, such as online orders or e-cigarette shops that are not included in that company’s sales data.

Poison control calls doubled.

The FDA’s report looked at data collected from April 2022 to March 2023 by the National Poison Data System operated by national poison control centers.

A total of 7,043 cases of potential e-cigarette addiction were reported, and nearly 9 out of 10 cases involved children under the age of 5.

Most of them inhaled or ingested the vape liquid.

The total number of reports is about double the 2,901 reported in 2018, with about two-thirds involving children under the age of five.

By 2023, about 1 in 10 cases in the data required medical attention, but less than 1% required hospitalization.

“The FDA continues to warn companies that mislead children with e-liquids that mimic food (such as juice boxes, candy, or cookies). The FDA is also pursuing other measures to protect youth from the dangers of tobacco products. .” A post published Thursday urged Americans to take steps to keep nicotine products away from children and pets.