Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 22 state attorneys general, submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services supporting continuation of the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). The NYTS is an annual study to assess the use of smoking and vaping among middle and high school students. The survey provides valuable insight into youth tobacco use and emerging products and has shaped efforts led by attorneys general to curb youth tobacco use for over two decades.  

“Attorneys general need reliable and rigorous data on e-cigarette use among youth and teens to combat this public health epidemic,” Raoul said. “I will continue to partner with advocates, lawmakers, and state and federal regulators to enact policies that protect minors from e-cigarettes and other addictive tobacco products.”

The CDC recently eliminated its Office on Smoking and Health and has replaced leaders and cut staff at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, which regulates the tobacco industry. Raoul and the coalition submitted the letter in response to a CDC invitation for public comment on continuation of the NYTS. The CDC intends to make revisions to the 2026-2028 NYTS but has yet to identify specific proposed changes.

The NYTS surveys students in both high school and middle school, providing unique data for younger students who are not included in other national surveys. NYTS data is used to help attorneys general monitor youth smoking rates, as required by the national tobacco settlement, and provides a reliable, public source of youth tobacco use data.

The letter notes that NYTS data is crucial in alerting the states to emerging tobacco products and was the first national indicator of the youth e-cigarette epidemic. Such information helps attorneys general focus their resources on the most effective policies and enforcement measures to address this constantly evolving retail market.

The letter highlights the bipartisan work of attorneys general nationwide to address youth exposure to tobacco and nicotine products, and how NYTS data has informed and supported those critical efforts.  

In 1998, 52 state and territorial attorneys general entered into a settlement with the four largest tobacco companies in the United States to resolve dozens of lawsuits. Among other important objectives, attorneys general brought these lawsuits to recover billions of dollars in health care costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses and to reduce and prevent smoking in the United States, especially among youth. The settlement, known as the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), bars the tobacco companies from misleading the public regarding the negative health impacts of tobacco use and prohibits tobacco companies from targeting youth in advertising. The MSA further requires the attorneys general and the tobacco companies to meet every three years to coordinate efforts to reduce youth tobacco use, an effort that relies heavily on NYTS data. To date, the MSA has generated over $171 billion in ongoing payments from the tobacco companies to the states. 

Today’s letter is part of Attorney General Raoul’s ongoing work to combat the dramatic increase in youth e-cigarette use and hold e-cigarette manufacturers accountable for epidemic usage levels among youth and teens. In 2023, Raoul announced a $462 million multistate settlement with Juul Labs Inc. (Juul), one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of e-cigarettes. In 2022, Raoul co-led a bipartisan coalition calling on the FDA to reject marketing authorization for all non-tobacco nicotine products. In 2021, the Illinois Legislature passed Raoul’s legislation that prohibits companies from marketing e-cigarettes to minors and the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes. In 2020, Raoul entered into a consent decree with Juice Man LLC that effectively prohibits Juice Man from operating in the state of Illinois. Additionally, Raoul has urged the FDA to ban flavored tobacco products and to strengthen e-cigarette guidance by prioritizing enforcement actions against flavored e-cigarettes.

For more information and free resources to help quit tobacco, please visit the Illinois Tobacco Quitline website or call 1-866-QUIT-YES.

Joining Attorney General Raoul in submitting the letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Puerto Rico.