Whac-A-Mole and Teen Vaping

While producing my film during the pandemic and attending high school over Zoom, I have been asking myself a few questions. First, will teen vaping decline as a result of the FDA’s ban on fun-flavored JUUL pods? Second, will the thought of damaging their lungs scare my friends away from vaping as each new wave of COVID-19 hits our community? Third, with so many teens not attending school in person, will their friends and dealers be able to get more teens to try vaping?

Sadly there is more bad news than good news. The good news is that the most comprehensive annual survey called the National Youth Tobacco Survey indicates that early 2020 saw the first ever decline in teen vaping, although it was only by a couple percentage points. The survey was conducted from January 16th to March 16th of 2020, so any impacts of the pandemic and school closures had yet to begin. It could be that the FDA’s ban on flavored pods that teens prefer was beginning to slow down teen vaping. Maybe education and news stories about the dangers of vaping were also having an effect.

Now for the bad news. The survey also captured a new trend as teens reported using more disposable vapes—where the whole device is disposable—which means they were beginning to switch away from JUUL as stores ran out of JUUL’s fun-flavored pods. The survey also reported that current teen users most frequently vaped flavored disposables like fruit (82.7%), mint (51.9%), candy/desserts (41.7%), and menthol (23.3%). Because of loopholes in the regulations that only targeted disposable and refillable cartridges, these disposable vapes quickly filled the gap left by JUUL.

New disposable vapes like Puff Bars have been taking over the teen market during the pandemic. They have even more fun flavors and are cheaper than JUUL. The FDA was caught flat-footed, because during the pandemic they suspended in-person inspection activities, like retail compliance checks and vape shop inspections. Instead, they send warning letters to Puff Bar and at least 10 other companies in mid-2020 to stop selling and distributing flavors favored by kids after the FDA finally closed the loophole in the regulation. Interestingly, Puff Bar seems to have changed ownership a couple of times, and no one seems to know who is in charge.

You might think that in the last 10 months, supplies of these banned products would have dried up. They have not. I just heard from a freshman who told me that Puff Bars are everywhere at her school, and she thinks that more than 50% of students attending her school in-person are vaping. Students are using face masks and social distancing requirements for bathroom occupancy to hide their vaping, while teachers and staff simply do not have time to play cat-and-mouse with vapes, as they are struggling just to educate students safely during this very stressful pandemic school year.