CNN
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The percentage of adults smoking cigarettes in the United States fell to a record low last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. However, electronic cigarettes are becoming more and more popular.
About 11 percent of adults told the CDC last year that they smoked cigarettes, according to the most recent preliminary data from the National Survey of Health Interviews, a biannual survey that provides general information on health-related topics. The survey includes responses from 27,000 people ages 18 and older. In 2020 and 2021, about 12.5% of adults said they smoked cigarettes.
This is a significant drop since surveys like these began. surveys of americans in the 1940s found that about half of all adults said they smoked cigarettes. Rates began to decline in the 1960s, and more recently, in 2016, 15.5% of adults said they smoked cigarettes.
Recent studies have shown that some groups are still at higher risk. While the latest CDC survey doesn’t capture this level of detail, smoking rates among some communities, including Native Americans, Alaska Natives and members of the LGBTQ community, remain “alarming,” according to the report. 2023 State of Tobacco Control Report of the American Lung Association.
The general decline in cigarette smoking among adults should have a positive impact on public health.
Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the US So many people have died from smoking, the CDC Findingsthat more than 10 times more American citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States.
smokers are 90% of lung cancer cases in the United States, but smoking can also cause someone to have a stroke, coronary heart disease, and COPD, as well as other cancers, including bladder, colon, kidney, liver, stomach, and other cancers. People who live with smokers are also at higher risk of death from secondhand smoke.
This latest survey doesn’t capture why fewer people were smoking cigarettes, but the number has been in the decline since the 1960safter the US Surgeon General released the first report on smoking and health concluding that smoking causes serious health problems.
Experts credit a variety of smoking reduction efforts: anti-smoking campaigns, programs that educate children about the dangers of smoking, laws that severely restrict where people can smoke and where cigarette companies can advertise, as well as better access to smoking. smoking cessation programs and higher taxes that make cigarettes more expensive.
Yet Congress hasn’t raised federal tobacco taxes in 14 years. The federal tax on cigarettes remains $1.01 per pack, and taxes vary for other tobacco products. No state increased its cigarette taxes in 2022.
The pandemic may also have had an influence. Smokers were much more vulnerable to the serious consequences of covid-19, and that gave some people the extra motivation they needed to quit, and it may have given doctors the extra motivation they needed to help them, too. according to Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a volunteer. medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association. On some level, the pandemic also made it easier to access the medical establishment.
“I think the pandemic really gave doctors time that they probably never had in the past to do these telemedicine visits that were appropriate just for quit strategies, helping them to help patients to quit smoking and not to smoke. said Galiatsatos, who is a specialist in pulmonary diseases and a physician in critical care medicine and director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic with Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Galiatsatos points to the US Surgeon General’s report released during the Trump administration, just before the start of the pandemic. The report detailed that of the patients who have now smoked, the few that remain will be the most resistant to quitting. Then-surgeon general Jerome Adams’ report encouraged more doctors to help their patients quit smoking. He report found that 40% of smokers are not routinely told by their doctors to quit.
Still, the culture has changed. Smoking is much less socially acceptable in some cultures in the United States.
However, the use of electronic cigarettes seems to be more socially acceptable, especially among younger people. studies showand that may explain why those numbers have gone up.
The current survey found that e-cigarette use rose to nearly 6% last year, up from 4.9% a year earlier.
Some argue that e-cigarettes are a good substitute for regular cigarettes, and in some countries they are even promoted as smoking cessation devices, but the CDC says that “electronic cigarettes are not safe for youth, young adults, and pregnant women, as well as adults who do not currently use tobacco products.”
A BMJ study published in February found that people who used e-cigarettes to quit found them less helpful than more traditional quit aids.
The US Food and Drug Administration says there isn’t enough evidence to support claims that these products are effective tools to help people quit smoking. None are approved for this purpose.. He FDA says There are no safe tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, vaporizers, and other electronic nicotine delivery systems.
“I always don’t have stigma or judgment when someone wants to smoke a traditional cigarette or use e-cigarettes, but as a pulmonary doctor, I will always promote just getting air into the lungs,” Galiatsatos said. “From where I stand, I think we should still have a public health mindset around using e-cigarettes because for some people, this product will have health consequences.”
He said that people can choose to vape instead of smoking cigarettes, but clinicians must be prepared to help this population if they want to quit.
However, e-cigarettes can produce a number of chemicals that are not good for human health, such as acrolein, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde. Studies show These chemicals are known as aldehydes and can cause lung and heart disease, according to the American Lung Association.
Among teens, nicotine exposure can harm the developing brain, according to the us surgeon general
E-cigarettes are much more popular than cigarettes among teens, so the number of adult e-cigarette users is likely to continue to grow.
About 14% of high school students said they used e-cigarettes, and 2% of high school students smoked cigarettes in the past year, according to separate CDC data.
The rate of children using electronic cigarettes is high, the says the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Specifically, in 2022, nearly 5% of middle school students and about 17% of high school students reported some type of current tobacco use, according to CDC data from a previous survey. In 2021, about 11% of high school students and 34% of high school students said they had ever tried tobacco.
These “attempt rates” are important because most adult smokers started smoking at young ages, according to the CDC.
The AAP continues to encourage pediatricians to screen for tobacco use as part of a child’s regular checkup. A talk about tobacco should begin no later than age 11 or 12, the report says.
For adult smokers, the CDC encourages people to call 1-800-QUIT-NOW where people can get free and confidential counseling. The government also provides free online resources and even text programs that can help people quit smoking.
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