Despite significant progress in reducing vaping among New York youth, more than 1 in 10 high school students still use e-cigarettes, and the use of nicotine pods is gaining popularity.
As manipulative tobacco marketing continues to attract young people and create an addiction to nicotine, local teens are stepping up to raise awareness and counter the influence of the tobacco industry in their communities.
Four students from Brentwood and Hempstead recently joined more than 100 teens from across the state at SUNY Oswego to participate in the three-day All-Around New York Youth Summit, designed to inform, engage and inspire young people to fight the influence of the tobacco industry in their own communities.
These Long Island teens are part of Reality Check, the youth component of the Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island and a program of the State Tobacco Control Program funded by the New York Department of Health.
Reality Check is a youth-led movement that empowers them to become community leaders. With the support of adults, the initiative exposes the tobacco industry’s manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics.
Bryanna Platero, 10th grade student. grade at Hempstead High School and a participant in the event, commented: “Programs like Reality Check are important for young people because they help them understand how big tobacco companies try to attract them, while also giving them the tools to confront those tactics.”
Vaping declines, but e-cigarettes remain popular among young people
According to the 2024 New York Youth Tobacco Use Surveye-cigarettes remain the most used tobacco product among high school students.
The efforts of the New York State Tobacco Control Program have helped reduce youth use from 18.7% in 2022 to 13.1% in 2024. Despite this progress, more than 1 in 10 youth continue to use e-cigarettes, and nicotine pod use in this group doubled during the same period.
Teenagers prepare to take action
During the three-day summit, teens developed leadership, communication and mobilization skills by participating in workshops, learning storytelling techniques and creating visual materials for community education.
They also planned and rehearsed activities to carry out at the local level. Its goal is to raise awareness about industry tactics that normalize tobacco use, such as marketing cheap, sweet products that appeal to young people and make it difficult for current consumers to quit smoking.
«I learned many things at the Youth Summit that I was able to apply to help educate my community. For example, I learned how to organize an informational booth and improve my public speaking skills; These are valuable skills to help our communities understand the real impact of the tobacco industry,” added Bryanna Platero.
Note that the Tobacco Action Coalition of Long Island is one of 21 recipients of the “Advancing Tobacco-Free Communities” grant, funded by the New York State Department of Health, Office of Tobacco Control and administered by the American Lung Association.
The grant includes a community engagement component and a youth action component called “Reality Check”; both work collaboratively to promote environments that support a tobacco-free norm, while educating and empowering youth to become agents of change in their communities.
