US adult smoking rate looks unchanged, vaping rate higher

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By MIKE STOBBE, AP News.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. decline in cigarette smoking could be stalling while the adult vaping rate appears to be rising, according to a government report released Thursday.

About 14% of U.S adults were cigarette smokers last year, the third year in a row the annual survey found that rate. But health officials said a change in the methodology make it hard to compare that to the same 14% reported for 2017 and 2018.

The adult smoking rate last saw a substantial drop in 2017, when it fell from 16% the year before.

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The new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mean there are more than 34 million adult smokers in the U.S.

Meanwhile, about 4.5% of adults were counted as current e-cigarette users last year — about 11 million people.

That rate appears to be up from 3.2% in 2018 and 2.8% in 2017. But again, officials said that comparing 2019 with earlier years is difficult because of the survey change.

The CDC figures are based on responses from about 32,000 people.

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Health officials have long called tobacco use the nation’s leading cause of preventable disease and death.

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.