gsthr logo
Quick links to detailed datasheets for United States of America at gsthr.org

Smoking in United States of America

In the United States of America, smoking is allowed but tobacco products should follow some regulations. Under these regulations, health warnings on tobacco packaging including cigarettes are mandatory, the minimum legal age for their sales is 21 years, and there are no federal legal restrictions on smoking in public places. While tobacco advertising is regulated, not all forms of their advertising are banned. An excise tax of 32.16% with a total taxation rate of 37.36% is applied on cigarettes. Cigarettes can legally be sold with authorised documents. They may also be purchased through vending machines as well as through online channels. Importing cigarettes for trade is allowed with an appropriate import license. Despite these control measures, prevalence data show that smoking remains an important public health issue in the United States. There were 39.8 million current smokers in the country in 2024. This represents an overall adult smoking prevalence of 14.1%, with higher prevalence among men (17.1%) than among women (11.1%). In comparison, the overall current smoking prevalence was 12.3% in 2022. The adult daily smoking prevalence was recorded to be 10.01% in 2020. Smoking-related mortality also remains significant in the country. In 2021, smoking resulted in 360,370 deaths, including 216,986 male deaths and 143,383 female deaths. This shows that smoking accounted for 10.38% of all deaths in the United States in 2021, with a higher rate among men (11.9%) than among women (8.7%).

Read articles from United States of America

April 06, 2022 by riverbender.com

Sen. Durbin Urges New FDA Commissioner To Finally complete E-Cigarette Review

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin [...] spoke by phone with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf about the agency’s delay in comprehensively regulating the e-cigarette marketplace to protect public health. During today’s call, Durbin urged new Commissioner Califf to finally conclude FDA’s review of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) for e-cigarette products, now seven months past the court-ordered deadline for the review. While FDA has reviewed nearly seven million PMTAs it received, the agency has yet to act on e-cigarette products most often used by children, including JUUL.

April 06, 2022 by centerfreeeconomy.org

Coalition Letter To FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf M.D.

Conservative leaders and free market advocates representing associations across the country sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf M.D. in opposition to a new regulation signed into law by Congress that will effectively ban vapor products that include synthetic nicotine manufactured and sold legally in the United States.

 
 
 

Most importantly, the groups are urging Commissioner Califf to exercise enforcement discretion to allow for regulated small businesses trying to comply with this foolish new law to remain on the market for longer than the 60 days stipulated, as they prepare their marketing applications.

April 06, 2022 by vapingpost.com

Anti-Vaping Congressman Shares More Misinformation About Vaping

Earlier this year, the Congressman reintroduced the END ENDS Act which proposed a cap on nicotine concentrations in vapes switch the aim of combating teen vaping. Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat representing the 8th Congressional District of Illinois, said that he is continuing his work to end the youth vaping epidemic by advocating for legislation like the END ENDS Act [...]

Subsequently in a recent letter to the Chicago Sun-Time, the congressman once again exaggerated the threats posed by underage vaping, equating it to smoking and said “there’s simply no evidence” that e-cigarettes help smokers quit. [...]

April 05, 2022 by reason.org

Colorado’s proposed flavored tobacco ban would worsen public health and criminal justice inequities

Colorado has been a leader in trusting adults and unwinding outdated prohibitions. Colorado led the way in the legalization of marijuana and then legalized sports betting in 2019. Locally, Denver decriminalized the possession of magic mushrooms. But, when it comes to nicotine, Colorado may be headed in the opposite direction.

A bill in the Colorado state legislature would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. Only one state has implemented such a ban. In June 2020, Massachusetts implemented its prohibition of flavored vaping and tobacco products and the results have been disastrous. [...]

April 05, 2022 by healio.com

E-cigarettes contribute to unsuccessful nicotine quit attempts by adolescents

A new study published in JAMA highlights the prevalence of unsuccessful quit attempts among adolescents who use either e-cigarettes or cigarettes over the past 13 years.

The reported prevalence of an unsuccessful cigarette quit attempt by adolescents declined from 1997 to 2020. However, in 2020, the reported prevalence of unsuccessful quit attempts among adolescents who used either cigarettes or e-cigarettes was higher than the prevalence of unsuccessful cigarette quit attempts from 1997 to 2020, researchers reported.

April 04, 2022 by filtermag.org

Michele Mital to Become Acting Director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products

Michele Mital, the current deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), will become its new acting director in mid-April. On March 30, the FDA told Filter that she will assume the role once Mitch Zeller, CTP’s current director, retires in a few weeks. [...]

Mital, who has been at the agency for 25 years in a variety of roles, inherits the politically loaded job of overseeing the regulation of cigarettes and vaping products. She will be under intense pressure from, on the one hand, industry and harm reduction advocates who argue that vapes should be widely available as a safer alternative for smokers;

March 31, 2022 by houstonchronicle.com

Houston city council unanimously bans vaping, e-cigarettes in public spaces

The city of Houston outlawed vaping in public spaces Wednesday, amending its smoking ordinance to include electronic cigarettes.

City Council unanimously approved the change, proposed last year by the Houston Health Department in response to a growing scientific consensus on the dangers of vaping. The amendment adds all types of e-cigarette devices — vape pens, electronic pipes and hookahs, among others — to the smoking ban, which bars cigarettes from enclosed public places and seating areas and within 25 feet of any building. It does not affect hookah bars or other private areas where smoking is permitted.

March 31, 2022 by houstonchronicle.com

5 things to know about Houston's new ban on vaping and e-cigarettes

Houston City Council on Wednesday unanimously outlawed vaping, but what does that mean for those Houstonians who choose to use electronic cigarettes? Houston currently bans tobacco smoking in enclosed public places and seating areas and within 25 feet of any building entrance. Smoking in covered bus stops and light rail stops also is prohibited. As of Wednesday, the smoking ban now includes electronic cigarettes.

March 30, 2022 by cannabisindustryjournal.com

How Fraud is Proliferating in the Cannabis Testing Market

With more and more states fully legalizing cannabis for medical and adult use, regulation has become a hot topic for the industry – and it won’t be going away anytime soon. The markets for virtually all cannabis uses (with the exception of industrial hemp, under the Farm Bill) have manifested at the state level without the benefit of federal oversight. One of the biggest consequences of state-based programs has been striking inconsistencies in assuring public safety through the establishment of testing requirements and the licensing of third-party, independent testing laboratories. Establishing legal cannabis programs on a state-by-state basis has been from the ground up. [...]

March 30, 2022 by themainewire.com

Opinion: Flavored tobacco ban bill bad for Maine’s public health

As a physician – one who has dedicated his career to treating lung diseases – it has become clear to me that asking a smoker to quit, gradually cut back, or instructing smokers on the use of more traditional nicotine-replacement therapies, like nicotine gum or patches, is not as simple or as effective as it sounds. Hence, the availability and acceptability of safer tobacco and nicotine products may be critical to successfully helping adult smokers move away from traditional cigarettes.