Preliminary findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirm that smoking rates have fallen to an all-time low as the prevalence of e-cigarettes has risen in the United States.

The CDC data comes from a survey of more than 27,000 adults. One in nine adults reported that they were current smokers, and one in 17 were current e-cigarette users. Smoking rates in the United States have been declining since the mid-1960s, from 42 percent then to 11 percent in 2022, while e-cigarette use rose from about 4.5 percent in 2021 to about 6 percent last year.

At the same time, among young smokers, e-cigarettes have become dominant, reducing cigarette smoking rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that only 2 percent of people smoked cigarettes last year, while 14 percent vaped. Some "experts" certainly lamented the latter finding, which focused solely on the rise of e-cigarettes without acknowledging the vast scientific literature showing that substituting e-cigarettes for cigarettes can transform a person's health.

Finally, a prominent scientific institution in the United States published a report in support of e-cigarettes: "There is solid evidence that completely replacing combustible tobacco cigarettes with e-cigarettes can reduce user exposure to multiple toxic substances and carcinogens present in combustible tobacco cigarettes," In fact, a recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) once again concluded that smokers who smoke e-cigarettes reduce their exposure to deadly toxins and carcinogens.