Smoking report might not be totally accurate according to La Crosse allergist

The popularity of smoking cigarettes has dropped like a brick since 1965 according to a new report from the CDC.

That doesn’t necessarily mean people have stopped smoking, however.

They’ve just moved to other mediums for nicotine and the CDC questioning might have gotten incorrect data among youth, according to allergist Todd Mahr at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse.

“They don’t relate e-cigarettes to what they’re doing,” Mahr said. “They call it vaping or they now call it juuling (pictured above), not realizing that that juul product contains up to 50 percent nicotine. I mean, it’s really outrageous.”

About 14 percent of adults in the U.S. smoked cigarettes everyday or some days in the previous month. That is down from 15.5 percent in 2016, according to the CDC. That is a 67 percent decline since 1965.

For those between ages 18-24, about 10 percent say they smoked cigarettes in 2017 — down from 13 percent in 2016.

“The e-cigarettes, the vaping, the juuls, the major tobacco companies have gone into that, and they’re putting the money behind all that,” Mahr said. “Regular cigarettes is not what we’re seeing as much anymore. They’re moving into these other delivery devices.”

Juuls is a popular e-cigarette brand that works by heating up a cartridge that contains oils to make a vapor that can be inhaled. It’s especially popular with teens, as there was a 75 percent increase in its use from 2017 to 2018, according to the FDA.