Smoking In United States Hits An All Time Low

cigarette butt

The number of smokers has been on a steady decline for years and hit an all-time low in 2017. Just 14% of Americans said they were smokers last year, down from 16% the year before. While the numbers are a good sign, 14% still equals roughly 30 million smokers in the country.

The annual national health survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also found that the number of teenagers who admitted to smoking dropped to an all-time low with only nine percent saying they use cigarettes.

While the data is trending the right direction, Dr. Adam Lackey, who is the chief of thoracic surgery at Staten Island University Hospital, told Health Day that the decrease in smoking could be the result of people switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. 

"Unfortunately, I suspect part of the drop is also related to more and more people switching to the various other methods of consuming nicotine," he noted. "Vaping seems to be taking off, and I am always dismayed to have patients proudly tell me that they don't smoke, and thank goodness for all those vaping products that they use now." 

He warned that while e-cigarettes are seen as a healthier alternative to smoking because they do not contain "the high levels of tar and soot that are the major contributors to the cigarette lung cancer" they are filled with chemicals that you are inhaling into your body.

Photo: Getty Images


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