Peter Schorsch
Fewer Americans are smoking cigarettes now than any time in the past 80 years, but not all ex-smokers have given up tobacco products entirely — and public health experts want clear regulations on the nicotine products they choose as an alternative.
A Gallup survey released this month found 11% of U.S. adults said they have smoked at least one cigarette in the past week, which matches the low set in 2022 and represents a 50% drop over the past decade, much of it among adults between 18 and 29 years old.
While the data makes for a compelling chart, it only accounts for cigarettes, which are becoming more outmoded by the day as modern alternatives, such as vapes, gain traction among consumers.
Only 6% of the youngest bracket said they smoked cigarettes, compared to 13% of 30- to 49-year-olds, 18% of 50- to 64-year-olds and 9% of those 65 and up.
However, 18% of the under-29 bracket said they’ve used e-cigarettes in the past week — more than double the rate of 30- to 49-year-olds, which ranked No. 2. If e-cigarettes and analog cigarettes are lumped together, young adults are the most likely to consume nicotine products.
Public health advocates have a tenuous relationship with vapes — they stress that it’s better for smokers to quit outright, but if smokers are not willing to quit, transitioning them down the risk continuum to less dangerous products is better than nothing.
The rub is ensuring those products are, indeed, less dangerous. A clear FDA review and approval process would assuage most fears, but the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products — which is supposed to review cigarette alternatives, including vapes — has been slow to adopt final rules. Meanwhile, some products on store shelves today are not safe, leading top Republicans on Capitol Hill to take the agency to task.
Congress, for its part, is calling upon the FDA to ensure that alternative, reduced harm nicotine products are available for consumers who are ready to drop cigarettes.
According to POLITICO, U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee, and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, chair of the Health Subcommittee, want the Government Accountability Office to probe how the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products spends its money amid a backlog of tobacco product applications.
“It is our view that the CTP has made little progress to implement some of its core responsibilities,” Guthrie and Griffith wrote in a letter obtained by POLITICO.
While the feds focus on reforming the FDA approval processes, the state of Florida isn’t waiting around. The state legislature approved a bill this Session that empowers the Attorney General to target unlawful products on store shelves. According to the Florida Retail Federation, the Sunshine State is No. 1 in vape sales with a market that sees $363 million worth of illicit vape sales annually.
The state is expected to take up rulemaking this fall, and Congress is gearing up on the issue too, ahead of Election Day as well as during the lame duck Session. For millions of smokers who want access to legal alternatives, policymakers aren’t moving quickly enough.
