Close to 13% of American adults have tried an e-cigarette, according to new federal data published Wednesday by the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.
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Among those still using the devices when surveyed, nearly 16 percent said they were still smoking tobacco cigarettes, Schoenborn says, while 22 percent had recently quit. Nearly 10% of 18- to 24-year olds who have never smoked cigarettes reported trying e-cigarettes, while just 3.5% of 25- to 44-year-olds and 1.2% of 45- to 65-year-olds had tried the devices.
In a first-of-its-kind look at electronic cigarettes, a new US government study reports that nearly 13 percent of American adults have tried e-cigarettes at least once and almost 4 percent use them. But it does point out the importance of FDA regulation to determine whether e-cigarettes are effective at helping cigarette smokers quit and, equally important, to provide cigarette smokers accurate information about which e-cigarettes are most effective at doing so. More than half of people who attempted to stop smoking in the previous year, or 55 percent, have lit up an e-cigarette and likely tried the electronic devices as an alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes, Schoenborn said.
Current users also tend to be younger, the report noted, with more than 5 percent of those 18 to 24 saying they now use e-cigarettes, compared with just over 1 percent of those 65 and older.
There was also an age-relationship among respondents who said they used e-cigarettes “every day or a few days”, although it was less pronounced.
Overall, 12.6% of all respondents had tried an e-cigarette at least once in their lives.
The survey did not ask smokers and ex-smokers whether e-cigarettes had helped them quit – only whether they had ever used the devices.
The appeal of e-cigarettes to young people has raised fears that the devices may hook a new generation on nicotine and lead them to eventually start smoking tobacco.
Only time will tell whether e-cigarettes are actually any safer to use than traditional cigarettes. “We’re not in a good position to do that”, she said.
“This is great news for public health”, says Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association.
The use of e-cigarettes by kids and young adults has come as e-cigarettes have been widely marketed using the same tactics once used to glamorize regular cigarettes, including celebrity endorsements, slick TV ads, and sponsorships of race cars and concerts. “But it’s not something that is creating nicotine dependency in those that did not previously have it”.
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Cigarette smoking is on the decline, according to a report released today by the National Center for Health Statistics, but e-cigarettes are rapidly gaining popularity in its place.
