Health experts are warning that a recent decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to authorise certain fruit-flavoured e-cigarettes for adults could risk reversing years of progress in reducing teen vaping, as parents are urged to talk openly with their children about the dangers of e-cigarettes.
The FDA’s policy shift, which followed months of lobbying from the vaping industry directed at President Donald Trump, allows fruit-flavoured vapes to be marketed to adults seeking to quit or cut down on traditional cigarettes. However, an FDA memo released this week acknowledged that these fruit-flavoured products are not significantly more effective at helping smokers quit than tobacco-flavoured alternatives.
Dr Scott Hadland, of Mass General Brigham for Children and Harvard Medical School, said the decision risked undermining recent gains. “I understand the goal of giving adult smokers a less harmful off-ramp, but fruit and sweet flavors are precisely what draw young people in,” he said. “I worry this could erode the hard-won progress that brought teen vaping to its lowest level in roughly a decade.”
Federal figures show that nearly 6 per cent of middle and high school students in the United States, around 1.63 million children, reported using e-cigarettes in 2024. While that figure represents a decline from previous years, e-cigarettes remain the most commonly used tobacco product among teenagers, with nearly nine out of ten choosing flavoured varieties.
The health risks associated with vaping are significant, according to doctors. Dr Devika Rao, of Children’s Health in Dallas, said she regularly treats children with respiratory problems linked to vaping, including coughing, worsening asthma, bronchitis and more severe lung conditions. Studies have found that teenagers who vape report higher rates of wheezing, shortness of breath and reduced exercise tolerance. Gaby Cuadra, 25, of Miami, who vaped for nine years starting at age 15, said the habit visibly affected her performance as a high school track and field athlete. “As the years kept going on and I would keep vaping, the distances that I used to be able to run, I, like, couldn’t do them anymore,” she said. “I would run out of breath.”
While e-cigarette aerosol does not contain most of the roughly 7,000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke, a comprehensive 2018 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that most vapes “emit numerous potentially toxic substances,” with the long-term health effects still not fully understood. One of the most significant risks is nicotine addiction, which can disrupt brain development and affect attention, learning and mood. “The addiction factor cannot be overstated enough,” Rao said. “Adolescent brains are primed for addiction.”
Experts say parents can play a key role in addressing the issue by starting open, non-judgemental conversations with their children. Rao suggested using everyday prompts, such as pointing out a vape shop, to open a dialogue. “Start open-ended conversations,” she said, recommending parents ask what their child knows about vaping, whether they’ve seen e-cigarettes, and whether their friends use them. Even if a child is already vaping, Rao advised parents to remain calm rather than react with anger.
Parents should also be aware of messaging children may encounter on social media, where some influencers describe nicotine as a “hack” for stress relief. Research suggests this framing is often misleading, with many people misinterpreting the relief of nicotine withdrawal symptoms as genuine stress relief. A 2025 study published in the journal Tobacco Control found that vaping may be linked to negative mental health outcomes, and that those who quit “experience fewer urges to vape, reduced anxiety, and stabilized mood.”
Peer influence plays a major role in teenagers’ decisions around vaping, according to Anthony Alberg of the University of South Carolina, a member of the expert committee behind the National Academies report. He suggested parents reassure teenagers that they don’t need to give in to peer pressure, and that genuine friends will accept them regardless of whether they vape. Younger children, Alberg said, may respond more readily to straightforward messages about health risks, such as comparing vaping to “putting poison in your system.”
Experts also stressed that arming children with information tends to be more effective than relying solely on restricting access, since age restrictions often fail to prevent young people obtaining vapes. “Most teens get e-cigarettes from friends, older peers or online sellers rather than buying them in a store,” Hadland said.
Ricky Resendez, a 17-year-old recent graduate from Superior, Wisconsin, first tried vaping using an older cousin’s device in eighth grade and was vaping daily by the time he reached high school. “It was just kind of normal,” he said. “Kids were vaping in class, in the bathrooms, wherever.” He favoured flavours including blue raspberry, strawberry, watermelon and kiwi, and initially believed vaping helped manage his ADHD. “What I didn’t realize is that because I was addicted to nicotine, when I didn’t have it, I’d be anxious and really couldn’t focus,” he said. “Instead of being something that helped me, it just made things worse.” Vaping also affected his stamina, sleep, asthma and performance in football and wrestling. After getting into trouble at school for vaping and selling vapes to other students, he began working with a school social worker and joined the American Lung Association’s Not On Tobacco programme. He described the first few weeks of quitting as extremely difficult, but eventually stopped thinking about vaping as often, quitting for good in 2022.
Research shows that, like Ricky, most middle and high school students who vape want to quit. Parents are encouraged to start by speaking with a doctor, who can connect children with counselling or free text-message quitting programmes designed for young people. For teenagers who vape heavily, Hadland said doctors may consider medications such as Chantix or nicotine replacement therapy as part of a supervised quitting plan. Cuadra eventually quit by giving up e-cigarettes for Lent, with support from EX, a free programme developed by the Truth Initiative and Mayo Clinic that offers text-message support and encouragement. “The best thing I ever did for myself was quit vaping,” she said.
Since quitting, Ricky has also begun sharing what he has learned with his peers, often asking them what triggers their vaping and how they might avoid those situations, as he did. “I tell them, like, ‘I’m not here to judge you,'” he said. “‘I’m here to help you.'”
