New Zealand · U.S. · Fortune Technology
Now e-cig users are switching to cigarettes to try to quit
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More than 60 years after the U.S. Surgeon General released its landmark report on the dangers of smoking, a new breed of “ cigfluencers ” has emerged in popular culture of celebrities puffing cigarettes in paparazzi photos.
Key facts
- An Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)-commissioned survey by Talbot Mills Research found that of 623 current smokers and 1,070 former smokers in New Zealand, 14% reported using smoking to quit vaping
- To be sure, cigarette smoking rates have plummeted since public health advocates began publicizing its harms, with only 9.1% of American adults smoking cigarettes as of 2025 compared with 42.4%
- A study published by researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in March 2026 found that, among 20,771 survey respondents, the portion of those who perceived e-cigarettes as more harmful
- For example, in February 2020, vaping was linked with 2,807 cases of lung injury and 68 deaths attributed to that lung injury
Summary
More than 60 years after the U.S. Emerging research shows that more individuals are switching from vaping back to combustible cigarettes, a reversal of a pattern of e-cigarettes being used as a tool to quit. To be sure, cigarette smoking rates have plummeted since public health advocates began publicizing its harms, with only 9.1% of American adults smoking cigarettes as of 2025 compared with 42.4% in 1965, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. “This is not a trivial misunderstanding,” ASH Director Ben Youdan said in the New Zealand report. Michael Siegel, a professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine, would agree.