Tobacco Prevention

E-cigarette Use: A Serious Public Health Concern

This program is for middle and high school students and their parents and caregivers.

With over 2 million kids using e-cigarettes, and over a third of them using daily or most days, youth e-cigarette use remains a serious public health concern. Nearly ninety percent of children and teens reportedly use flavored products. National PTA is committed to raising awareness about the risks of using tobacco and helping to prevent e-cigarette and other tobacco use among youth.

National PTA and PTAs nationwide have been advocating in support of legislation, regulation and/or other national, state and local measures to:

Address the manufacturing of and ingredients in e-cigarettes

Prohibit the advertising, marketing and sale of e-cigarettes to individuals under the age of 21

Prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in public places and on school grounds

Smiling Teens

National PTA’s collaboration with community partners builds on the association’s commitment to educating middle and high school students, parents and caregivers, and school boards and local officials on the dangers of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.

National PTA adopted a position statement on the Dangers of Tobacco Products in 2001 and a resolution on Electronic Cigarettes and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Individuals Under 21 in 2016.

How PTAs Can Help Prevent Youth Tobacco Use in All Forms

National PTA will provide resources for PTAs/PTSAs to use to educate their school communities about youth tobacco-use, including e-cigarettes, how to support the elimination of all flavored tobacco products and prevention efforts.

National PTA will also provide PTAs/PTSAs advocacy tools to lead anti-tobacco efforts within their communities and host education and advocacy school-wide campaign events for families.

Tobacco Prevention Campaign Toolkit

Use these toolkit resources and those found in our program toolkit to guide you through planning tobacco prevention programming for your school community.

The tools will help your PTA:

Assess the prevalence of tobacco-use in your school community, including vaping, e-cigarette use and flavored tobacco product use.

Share tobacco prevention resources and education.

Engage youth, families, school officials, community members and legislators in your education and advocacy efforts.

National PTA provides everything your PTA/PTSA needs to make your campaign and other tobacco prevention education and action activities a success!

Use the Tobacco Prevention Campaign Planning Guide and our program toolkit resources to guide you through planning tobacco prevention programming and participation in advocacy efforts.

Planning

Promoting

Hosting

Celebrate Impact

Make sure to document and take pictures of your program throughout planning and implementation, so you can share out the impact of your PTA! Share successes with your entire school community, state PTA and National PTA. Tag us to your photos and stories @NationalPTA using hashtags #PTAProud and #HowWePTA! Visit How We PTA to see examples of amazing PTA stories.

The work you do throughout the year demonstrates the power and value of PTA as we meet the critical needs of our children, families and schools.

Use the Celebrating Impact section of the program toolkit for additional ideas and templates to thank volunteers and share the good work of your PTA!