For Educators

Educators have an important role in addressing youth e-cigarette use. As a teacher or coach, you can take the following steps to prevent e-cigarette use by your students and athletes:

• Read the E-Cigarettes and Youth: What Educators and Coaches Need to Know [PDF – 614 KB] fact sheet to learn about the risks of e-cigarettes to youth.
• Explore the FDA’s Tobacco Education Resource Library for downloadable resources about working with youth.
• Develop, implement, and enforce tobacco-free school policies that include e-cigarettes. The Public Health Law Center has information and resources on tobacco-free schools.
• Promote cessation support for students who use tobacco products, including free resources such as the Truth Initiative® E-cigarette Quit Program (Text QUIT to 202-804-9884), and the National Cancer Institute’s SmokefreeTeen website.
• Educate parents, using the E-Cigarettes and Youth: What Parents Need to Know [PDF – 1 MB] fact sheet. Other ideas include:
  • Use content from the latest CDC Back to School feature in parent communications (e.g., newsletters or blog postings).
  • Show the Any Volunteers? video PSA at parent meetings.
  • Link to CDC’s web page or include syndicated CDC content on your site. Syndicated content is available at CDC’s Public Health Media Library by searching for “e-cigarettes” under the type “microsites”. CDC also has infographics on youth and e-cigarettes that can be embedded on a website or shared on social media.
• Educate students using evidence-based tobacco prevention materials that are free from tobacco industry influence. For instance:
  • CDC Know the Risks: A Youth Guide to E-cigarettes presentation, a PowerPoint deck with talking points
  • FDA e-cigarette prevention posters, available for download from the FDA Exchange Lab
  • FDA lesson plan and activity The Real Cost of Vaping: Understanding the Dangers of Teen E-Cigarette Use, developed in collaboration with Scholastic
  • The Stanford Medical School Tobacco Prevention Toolkit module on e-cigs, vapes, and pods
  • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Catch My Breath Youth E-Cigarette and JUUL Prevention Program [PDF–20.3 MB]

Learn more about the risks of youth e-cigarette use at the CDC Office on Smoking and Health e-cigarette web pages.