Sec. 2. Findings

323 words·~1 min read·/bill/116/hr/4019/ih/section-2

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Congress finds the following: The use of tobacco among young students remains a serious health concern, with more than 1 in every 4 high school students, and approximately 1 in every 14 middle school students, reporting recently using a tobacco product. Roughly 95 percent of smokers will start smoking before they are 21 years of age, with more than 90 percent of adult smokers reporting having started when they were teens. E-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (commonly referred to as ENDS ) entered the market in 2006 and, by 2014, became the most commonly used and popular tobacco products among middle school and high school students.

The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, continues to rise, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration having recorded a 78 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students and 48 percent increase in e-cigarette use among middle school students from 2017 to 2018. The most recent data finds that 3,620,000 middle school and high school students were current e-cigarette users in 2018, an increase of 1,500,000 students in just one year.

Despite a 2018 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report that found e-cigarette aerosol contained fewer toxicants than combusted cigarette smoke, e-cigarettes present unique health concerns for middle school and high school students. Electronic nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, can contain nicotine, a drug the Surgeon General has determined is highly addictive and can be harmful to the development of the adolescent brain. Congress has a major policy-setting role in ensuring that the use of tobacco products among minors is discouraged to the maximum extent possible.

Additionally, local educational agencies should be given greater flexibility to target specific funding to efforts aimed at eradicating the problem of the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, as such use affects student health, productivity, safety, and outcomes and impedes a distraction-free learning environment.