|
Note well: "tobacco use" is a umbrella term that includes e-cigarette use (with nicotine), since the nicotine in vape juice is derived from tobacco plants. Also note: "combustible tobacco product use" declined. "Among high school students, during 2011–2018, no significant trend in the reported use of any tobacco product overall was observed (Figure 2). However, changes were observed for individual tobacco products over this period. A significant nonlinear increase in current e-cigarette use occurred from 2011 (1.5%) to 2018 (20.8%). During 2011–2018, significant linear declines in combustible tobacco product use (from 21.8% to 13.9%) and ≥2 tobacco product use (from 12.0% to 11.3%) occurred; by product type, significant linear declines occurred for cigars (from 11.6% to 7.6%), smokeless tobacco (from 7.9% to 5.9%), and pipe tobacco (from 4.0% to 1.1%). A significant nonlinear decline was observed for cigarettes (from 15.8% to 8.1%). A significant nonlinear change during 2011–2018 was observed for hookahs (from 4.1% to 4.1%). Among middle school students, no significant change in use of any tobacco product overall occurred during 2011–2018 (Figure 3). However, changes for individual tobacco products were observed. A significant nonlinear increase in e-cigarette use occurred (from 0.6% to 4.9%) during 2011–2018. A significant linear decline was observed for combustible tobacco product use (from 6.4% to 3.3%), ≥2 tobacco products use (from 3.8% to 2.4%), cigarettes (from 4.3% to 1.8%), cigars (from 3.5% to 1.6%), smokeless tobacco (from 2.7% to 1.8%), and pipe tobacco (from 2.2% to 0.3%); a significant nonlinear change occurred for hookah smoking (from 1.0% to 1.2%)." — https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6806e1.htm |
This sounds like an improvement to me. Also, categorization of e-cigarettes as tobacco products, and the way that their use rate in minors is not explicitly reported separately from tobacco seems incoherent if not suspicious to me. If reporting actual rate of e-cigarette use were one's real goal, it would make far more sense to report it _alone_ instead of combined with tobacco.
Tobacco and smoking cessation products are effectively regulated cartels. I quit smoking years ago, using nicotine patches, which I noticed were made by GlaxoSmithKline. Other nicotine delivery vehicles seemed strangely un-competive considering that nicotine is cheap enough to spray as an insecticide. Generics existed, but they were hard to buy and surprisingly inferior. I belive these are regulated medical products and subject to patent; at any rate, I only ever saw generic nic patches at Wal-mart, and they were bad to use, and still pretty expensive. So for practical purposes it cost $100-$200 a month for patches, about the same as a few cartons of cigarettes. These products always had a peculiar way of costing a just a little more then a similar supply of cigarettes, even as the price/tax regime of tobacco changed by an integer factor over time and space. If I recall correctly, GSK turned out to own shares in Altria (might have been the other way around?).
In so far as E-cigarettes are a threat to incumbents, I would expect them to lobby aggressively to have them similarly regulated, taxed, and finally, priced. I suspect this is at least partly behind the sensation and obfuscated statistics surrounding vape use.
I know first hand that nicotine is viciously addictive. One of the reasons I quit is that I knew I was being farmed. Consider that Altria is famed as "dividend aristocrat". I would expect an aggressive campaign to prevent disruption of that market, or fold it into the extant cartel.