A Year in Review: FDA’s Progress on Tobacco Product Regulation in 2024

With a new year upon us, FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) continues to work diligently to protect the public health of the U.S. population from tobacco-related disease and death. At the same time, we also celebrate significant public health wins that have occurred over the past year, including current tobacco product use among U.S. youth dropping to the lowest recorded level in the past quarter century. This historic decline was largely driven by a significant drop in the number of youth who reported using e-cigarettes; current e-cigarette use among U.S. middle and high school students has declined nearly 70 percent over the past five years, including a half million fewer youth who reported using these products over the past year alone.

Additionally, smoking rates—which are the deadliest forms of tobacco product use—are at an all-time low. Cigarette smoking among U.S. adults is about half what it was when FDA was first granted the authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009. Moreover, in 2024, 1.4 percent of U.S. middle and high school students reported currently using cigarettes.

The progress made has occurred alongside concerted efforts by CTP, guided by our strategic plan, across numerous programmatic areas. These efforts include enhanced compliance and enforcement actions across the supply chain, reviewing applications before new tobacco products can be legally marketed, developing regulations and guidance, and educating the public about the risks of tobacco products. Additional details and examples of these actions over the past year are outlined below.