The major drop in smoking rates in developed countries has been one of our great health advancements of this century. Yet in the past year or two it seems like some progress has been lost.
Last year, Roy Morgan, a social and political research company in Australia, found that the percentage of Australian youth smoking cigarettes had increased by almost a third from a year earlier. Similarly, the Action on Health and Smoking Survey in the U.K. found that the percentage of British youth having tried cigarettes had increased by half from two years earlier, rising from 14% to 21%.
Canada’s data on smoking has a longer lag, so we don’t yet know what’s been happening here. Negative trends elsewhere are very recent, and Canadian data, which date to 2024, aren’t recent enough to pick it up.
Increased popularity of smoking coincides with its reappearance in popular culture. Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga are proudly puffing on cigarettes in some of their recent music videos. Beyoncé has been smoking at her concerts, and trays of cigarettes were passed around at Charli XCX’s Italian wedding and a party for Kylie Jenner’s fashion line, Khy. Television shows like Stranger Things show some main characters smoking.
A recent article by American journalist and professor Katie Roiphe, published in the Wall Street Journal, gives some explanations for what’s happening.
Vaping, which early in the last decade looked poised to eliminate smoking entirely, is now considered unfashionable among young people, compared to “sucking on a USB flash drive.”
More young people are now saying that, with everything going on around them, from wars to climate crises to pandemics, the damage smoking does to their health is less scary. There’s not much logic in this, but with human nature a gut feeling can be enough. Those who were addicted to vaping may be switching to cigarettes to “stay in style,” which is sad considering that vaping was meant to help break the cigarette habit, not form it.
Although vaping presents risks for people’s health, at least it avoids running tar through your lungs. The second-hand smoke from vaping is also less hazardous to those nearby, and it doesn’t smell nearly as bad.
It’s still very early in this upswing of smoking, and hopefully it will pass soon, with only minor impacts. Acting now to explain why smoking is such a bad idea might help to nip the trend in the bud. Pointing out that it smells bad and leaves a lingering odour might help get the message through. Neither vaping nor cigarettes are good for us, but choosing cigarettes over vaping doesn’t make sense.
