Nearly half of young adults who vape every day now reach for the strongest products on the shelf, and the researchers behind a new US study say the finding should force regulators to rethink the bargain behind today’s e-cigarette market.
The research, from the University of California San Diego’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and published in the journal Tobacco Control on October 20, 2026, tracked how nicotine strength shifted between 2017 and 2022. By the final year, 49.2% of daily vapers aged 18 to 24 were using high-nicotine products, defined here as e-cigarettes containing at least 4% nicotine (40 mg/ml). Among daily vapers aged 55 and older, the figure was just 4.5%.
| Age group, daily vapers (2022) | Share using high-nicotine products |
|---|---|
| 18 to 24 | 49.2% |
| 55 and older | 4.5% |
Across all people who vaped in 2022, the odds of using a high-nicotine e-cigarette were 12 times higher for 18- to 24-year-olds than for adults 55 and older. High-nicotine use was also associated with increased nicotine dependence and more persistent vaping over time, a sign the salt-nicotine era made dependence harder to break because the products themselves got stronger.
Senior author John P. Pierce tied the numbers directly to regulation: “The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of these products was based in part on the expectation that the benefits to adults who smoke would outweigh the risks of creating new nicotine dependence among young people. Our findings suggest that this balance needs to be reassessed. Young adults are disproportionately choosing high-nicotine products, including within the same brands used by older adults, and that use is associated with substantially greater nicotine dependence.”
Pierce’s argument cuts to the basis on which the FDA granted FDA marketing orders to a small set of e-cigarettes, weighing help for adult smokers against new dependence in young people.
The study draws on the nationally representative US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, covering survey waves in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022, plus 2,356 adults who vaped in 2019 and were followed through 2022. A note of caution: the findings are observational associations, not proof the products alone caused the dependence, and this is a US study.
Separately, a different US study published this week found teen girls now vape more than boys. The dependence question is not the same as the harm question, and the study says nothing about vaping compared with smoking itself.
Source: University of California San Diego study published in the journal Tobacco Control on October 20, 2026.