U.S. cigarette use continues its long-term decline, though it can hardly be described as low. The New York Post headline for an AP story is “Smoking in the US is at an all-time low,” though the current 14 percent rate is still a fourth of the rate seen at the all-time high a lifetime ago. There continue to be worries about e-cigarettes and vaping, though it seems those are fading fads now after word of health consequences got out.
Cigarette smoking is declining for two main reasons: a smaller advertising presence and the early death of regular smokers. Tobacco companies are acknowledging that their products are deadly for the first time this week after the companies lost a 2006 racketeering case. The court in that case found that the companies got together to spread false information the dangers of cigarettes. The new court-ordered corrective statements still understate the dangers of cigarette smoking, since they are based only on the information tobacco companies had in 2006. They do not mention, for example, the more recent research implicating exposure to cigarette smoke in cases of sudden death from heart attack.
Other cultural trends are working against cigarettes. Cigarettes are part of a cluster of products and activities that might be seen as the gritty side of 20th-century culture. This cluster also includes beer, soda, coffee, smoked meat, narcotics, boxing, football, golf, sports television, secret societies, men-only lounges, motorcycles, pickup trucks, detective novels, and more — nearly all now in long-term decline as popular culture moves in another direction.
