U.S kids no longer smoke. Why aren’t we celebrating?

The near disappearance of youth smoking in the U.S. is one of the great public health triumphs of the present century. Yet, it is rarely mentioned. Shouldn’t we be shouting it from the mountaintops? Why aren’t we? This presentation explores factors responsible for the silence that has greeted this remarkable accomplishment. One is the public’s (and professionals’) failure to distinguish the risks associated with smoking from those produced by other tobacco and nicotine products. Another, closely related, is the erroneous perception that nicotine causes the disease and death associated with smoking. The rise in the popularity of e-cigarettes has supplanted consideration of the disappearance of smoking, despite the ironic fact that youth smoking has fallen at its fastest rate ever during vaping’s ascendancy. As a result of the demise of youth smoking, the current generation will live longer, healthier lives than their parents and grandparents.