Rite Aid, one of the country’s biggest pharmacy chains, will stop selling e-cigarettes and vaping products because of concern that they are fueling tobacco use among middle and high school students across the United States.

Rite Aid said Thursday that it would remove the products from its more than 2,400 stores over the next 90 days. The chain will continue to sell regular tobacco products, a decision that some public health advocates criticized.

“We’re concerned about some of the alarming statistics regarding the use of e-cigarettes and vaping products by children and teens,” Bryan Everett, the chain’s chief operating officer, said on an earnings call. He added that “while many feel these products are beneficial to those of legal age who are trying to quit the use of tobacco,” the company had decided to stop selling them because of their growing popularity with young people.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the use of tobacco products, a category that includes e-cigarettes and vaping products, jumped 38 percent last year among high school students and 29 percent among middle school students. The surge, driven by the growth of e-cigarettes, countered the declining use of such products among young people in previous years, the C.D.C. found.