LAURA UNGAR - AP Medical Writer
•6/13/2026
Ricky Resendez first tried e-cigarettes in eighth grade. By the time he got to high school, he was vaping daily.
“It was just kind of normal,” said Ricky, a 17-year-old recent graduate in Superior, Wisconsin. “Kids were vaping in class, in the bathrooms, wherever.”
Nationally, nearly 6% of middle and high school students — amounting to 1.63 million kids — reported using electronic cigarettes in 2024, federal figures show. Although that’s down from previous years, e-cigarettes remain the most commonly used tobacco products among teens, and nearly 9 out of 10 of kids choose flavored products.
Some doctors are concerned that youth vaping rates may rise again. The Food and Drug Administration recently announced its first authorization of fruit-flavored vapes intended for adults interested in quitting or cutting back on more harmful traditional cigarettes. The policy shift came after months of appeals to President Donald Trump from the vaping industry. An FDA memo released this week said these fruit-flavored e-cigarettes are not significantly better at helping smokers quit than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.
“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,” said Dr. Scott Hadland at Mass General Brigham for Children and Harvard Medical School. “I worry this could erode the hard-won progress that brought teen vaping to its lowest level in roughly a decade.”
Experts say there are ways parents can counteract the allure of e-cigarettes, teach kids about the dangers of vaping and help them quit.
Dr. Devika Rao sees lots of kids with respiratory problems caused by vaping, including coughing, worsening asthma, bronchitis and more severe types of lung disease.
Studies show teens who vape report higher rates of wheezing, shortness of breath and a reduced ability to tolerate exercise. Gaby Cuadra of Miami, who vaped for nine years starting at age 15, remembers how it hurt her high school track and field performance.
“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,” said Cuandra, 25. “I would run out of breath.”
While an e-cigarette's aerosol doesn't contain most of the 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, most vapes “emit numerous potentially toxic substances,” according to a comprehensive 2018 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Researchers said the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are not yet clear.
One of the biggest dangers of vaping is nicotine addiction, which can disrupt the developing brain and affect attention, learning and mood.
“The addiction factor cannot be overstated enough,” said Rao at Children's Health in Dallas. “Adolescent brains are primed for addiction.”
Start by asking questions, experts advise. You can raise the issue by, for example, pointing out a new vape shop.
“Start open-ended conversations,” Rao said.
Ask what your child knows about vaping and its harms, whether they've seen e-cigarettes and if their friends are using them.
Even if your kid is already vaping, Rao said, take a deep breath and don’t yell. Be nonjudgmental.
Consider what your child may see on social media, where some influencers call nicotine a “hack” for stress relief. Some studies show that many people misinterpret the curbing of nicotine withdrawal symptoms as stress or anxiety relief and that quitting reduces stress. A 2025 study in the journal Tobacco Control said vaping may be linked to adverse mental health outcomes and that those who quit “experience fewer urges to vape, reduced anxiety, and stabilized mood.”
Teens’ decisions are often based on their peers and what’s cool, said Anthony Alberg of the University of South Carolina, a member of the expert committee that produced the National Academies vaping report. Tell your teen they don’t have to succumb to peer pressure and that their friends should want to be friends whether they vape or not.
Younger children, Alberg said, may be more likely to listen to arguments about health effects, such as comparing vaping to “putting poison in your system.”
Arming kids with information is better than simply trying to limit access to vapes, experts said, since age restrictions often don’t keep them out of kids’ hands.
“Most teens get e-cigarettes from friends, older peers or online sellers rather than buying them in a store,” Hadland said.
When Ricky first tried e-cigarettes, he used an older cousin’s vape. Later, an older friend bought e-cigarettes for him and his friends. He particularly liked the flavors blue raspberry, strawberry, watermelon and kiwi.
In the early days, he thought vaping helped him with 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 sapped his stamina, made it harder to sleep, worsened his asthma and compromised his performance as a football player and wrestler.
Eventually, he got into trouble with his school and parents for vaping and selling vapes to others. He began meeting with a school social worker and joined the American Lung Association’s Not On Tobacco program, which helps teens to quit.
The first couple of weeks were extremely difficult. But eventually, he stopped thinking about vaping as much. He quit for good in 2022.
Like Ricky, most middle and high school students who vape want to quit, researchers have found.
Parents can help them by first seeing their doctor, who can connect them with counseling or free text-message quit programs for young people.
For kids who vape heavily, Hadland said doctors may consider medications like Chantix or nicotine replacement therapy as part of a supervised quitting plan.
Cuandra quit after giving up e-cigarettes for Lent, assisted by a free program developed by Truth Initiative and Mayo Clinic called EX, which provides text message support, advice and encouragement.
“The best thing I ever did for myself was quit vaping,” said Cuandra, who has shared her story on social media.
Since Ricky gave up vaping, he’s also shared what he learned. Usually, he asks his peers what triggers their vaping and how they can 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.'”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
