e-cigarettes

Adult smokers in the U.S. are kicking the habit at a rate that researchers haven’t seen in 20 years. The rate of smoking fell to 15% in 2015 due to the biggest 1-year decline in 2 decades.
The rate fell 2 percentage points from 2014, when approximately 17% of adults in a large national survey said they had recently lit up. The last time Americans kicked the habit at that pace was from 1992 to 1993, when the smoking rate dropped 1.5 percentage points, said Brian King of the CDC.

Since last October, burn and trauma experts at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle have treated 4 patients who sustained face and hand injuries when the e-cigarette devices they were using exploded. Officials say the horrifying incidents are part of a small national trend.

If you’ve tossed your pack of tobacco cigarettes aside for an e-cigarette thinking that it was a healthier choice…well, you might be wrong. A new study presented in August at the European Society for Cardiology congress in Rome shows that vaping may be nearly as bad for your heart as smoking cigarettes. [1]

Great efforts have been made to get people to quit smoking, and to help them avoid starting. The Great American Smokeout, held every third Thursday in November to encourage people to give up tobacco, began in the 1970’s. Medications like Zyban, Wellbutrin, and Chantix were introduced to help would-be quitters fight their cravings. And in the 1990’s, toll-free quit lines were launched in every state. [1]

In March of this year, California lawmakers voted to raise the legal age for buying and smoking cigarettes/tobacco products from 18 to 21, making California the second state, after Hawaii, to make such a move statewide.