Delaware lawmakers advanced legislation to significantly increase tobacco taxes and update licensing requirements, with House Bill 215 proposing to raise the cigarette tax from $2.10 to $3.60 per pack while also increasing taxes on vapor products, moist snuff, and other nicotine items. The measure would expand the definition of tobacco to include all nicotine-containing products, raise licensing fees across the supply chain, and is projected to generate up to $26.7 million annually, with implementation beginning in late 2026.
Tag: smoking
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Vape Use Rises in Macau Despite Ban
Electronic cigarette use remains widely visible in Macau despite a ban on importing the devices, with tourists and residents frequently seen vaping in public areas and occasionally indoors. Data from the Health Bureau show illegal smoking cases rose 27% in 2025 compared with 2024, alongside a sharp increase in vaping-related incidents and a 48% rise in violations involving tourists, which officials partly attribute to higher visitor numbers and expanded inspections totaling more than 240,700 checks during the year. Individuals caught bringing vaping products into the city face fines of MOP4,000 ($480).
According to the authorities, the city’s Customs Service recorded 49 major cases involving e-cigarettes and related products as of Feb. 23, seizing 68,247 devices and 21,299 cartridges or liquids.
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Study Focuses on Tobacco and Cannabis Habits of Young Americans
A University of Michigan study of 8,722 Americans aged 12–34 who had used a tobacco, nicotine, and/or cannabis product within the last month found that traditional smoking remains prevalent even as vaping and edibles grow in popularity. Researchers identified six main usage patterns: combustible tobacco (31%), multiple forms of cannabis (27%), nicotine vaping (18%), combined use of nicotine, tobacco, and cannabis (14%), cannabis edibles only (5%), and multiple forms of nicotine and tobacco (5%).
The study also highlighted narrowing gender differences and higher usage rates among Black and African American youth and young men, suggesting targeted prevention and cessation programs are needed. The study appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and was funded by the National Cancer Institute and NIH.
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Vaping Overtakes Smoking in UK
For the first time, the number of adults in Britain who vape has surpassed those who smoke traditional cigarettes, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday (November 4). The ONS reported that 10% of adults (around 5.4 million people) in Great Britain used e-cigarettes daily or occasionally in 2024, overtaking the 9.1% (4.9 million) who still smoke. Cigarette smoking has now fallen to its lowest level since records began in 2011.
Public health specialist Professor John Ashton said “many people are vaping but haven’t stopped smoking.” He cautioned that the long-term effects of vaping remain unknown and that youth uptake is becoming a growing concern. While smoking rates among young adults (18–24) have plummeted from 25.7% in 2011 to 8.1% in 2024, vaping remains most common in the 16–24 age group at 13%.
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New ASH data showing a rise in youth smoking is ‘deeply troubling’ says UK Vaping Industry Association
PRESS RELEASE
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is alarmed at new data from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) which reveals a worrying increase in the numbers of young people smoking.
The new data reveals that one-in-five 11-17-year-olds have tried vaping, unchanged since 2023, while ever smoking among young people has increased from 14% in 2023 to 21% in 2025.
Vaping prevalence among adults remains at 10.4%, unchanged since 2024, suggesting the growth in uptake has stalled. With around a quarter of adult smokers in GB never having tried vaping, this is an issue which must be urgently addressed.
UKVIA Director General John Dunne said: “The UKVIA has always been clear that under 18s should not be vaping (or smoking for that matter) and it is deeply troubling to see smoking rates rise, particularly after a long period of decline and especially so among under 18s.
“We can’t afford to wait a moment longer to clamp down hard on retailers who sell age-gated products to minors. This is why we need a vape licensing scheme to ensure compliance with the law, put persistent offenders out of business and act as a deterrent to others.
“Enforcement in the UK is patchy at best, fines are woefully low and rogue retailers will continue flouting the law if they think they can get away with it.”
The ASH data on adult vaping trends shows that misperceptions about vaping harms have increased, with 53% of adult smokers believing that vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. The ASH youth survey revealed that 63% of young people have the same misperception – up from 41% in 2022.
John added: “The misperceptions regarding the relative risks of smoking and vaping threaten to derail the government’s smokefree goals and we need a national public health information campaign to set the record straight.
“The rise in youth smoking experimentation should be a wake-up call for the government. Policies must prioritise reducing youth access to all nicotine products and not come at the cost of reversing progress on smoking rates.
“We urge public health authorities to step up efforts to communicate the clear scientific consensus that vaping is significantly less harmful than combustible tobacco use and remains the UK’s most effective quit aid for adult smokers. Smoking still claims 220 lives every day in the UK and we must bring these numbers down.
“As the UK moves into a new regulatory phase following the ban on single-use vapes, the UKVIA and its members remain committed to working with regulators, trading standards and public health experts to ensure products stay out of children’s hands while remaining accessible and appealing to adult smokers who want to quit.”
On a more positive note, the figures show that 10% of GB adults vape, equal to an estimated 5.5 million people.
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North Korea Cracking Down on Youth, Public Smoking
North Korea has launched a strict anti-smoking campaign in Pyongyang, targeting public smoking, especially in busy districts like Jung, Hwasong, Potonggang, and Pyongchon. The campaign, in effect through mid-July, involves patrols by various state organizations and school staff, with a focus on youth and public areas such as parks and bus stops.
Teen smoking is a key concern, with students being searched and their information reported to schools and political groups if caught. Critics say the campaign is hypocritical, given that Korean President Kim Jong Un is frequently seen smoking publicly. Despite anti-smoking laws passed in 2020, the leader’s own habits are seen as undermining the message.
“There was a crackdown last year too, but this year’s is much tougher. What’s different is that middle school boys are under constant surveillance and their pockets are being searched more frequently,” a source said. “These measures go beyond just restricting behavior. These orders are clearly meant to teach a harsh lesson.”
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Croatian Authorities Targeting Terraces
Croatia allows for small hospitality venues (under 50 square meters) to designate themselves as smoking areas, while larger ones can set up ventilated smoking zones. However, authorities are suddenly waging war on smoking on enclosed terraces. Since the start of this year, Croatian authorities have carried out 389 inspections in hospitality venues and leveled 181 violations for smoking on terraces.
For such an offense, businesses can be fined €19,908, putting extra pressure on an industry struggling to stay afloat.
“Why all these checks now, and why such steep fines?” said Željko Pojer, president of the Požega Craftsmen’s Association and a nightclub owner. “The nightlife in Croatia has been dying for a while. A total smoking ban would bring hospitality to its knees. If a full ban comes in, most of us will have to shut down and let our staff go.”
Last year, the European Commission floated the idea of banning smoking in outdoor spaces too, but hospitality and hotel sectors pushed back hard, and the proposal fizzled out. Pojer argues that the industry’s survival hinges on flexibility, not stricter rules.
“When we brought in our smoking ban years ago, everyone saw it wouldn’t work,” he said. “Businesses collapsed. That’s why we got these exceptions for smoking areas.”
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Smoking Increases in Croatia
The number of smokers in Croatia is increasing, according to Croatia Week, citing a study from January 2025 carried out by JA Trgovac magazine and Hendal, a global market research agency.
The study showed that 37 percent of people used tobacco products in January of this year, four percentage points higher than the previous year. In two years, the number of tobacco users has increased by 12 percent.
Of all tobacco users, 74 percent smoke cigarettes, an increase of 6 percent from January 2023.
Hrvatski Duhani, a BAT-owned company, purchased more than 4,500 tonnes of tobacco last year from 250 growers in the Podravina and Slavonia regions, marking a 41 percent increase from 2023. According to Hrvatski Duhani, the company paid tobacco producers more than €20 million last year.
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Study: One Cigarette Decreases Life Expectancy by 20 Minutes
Photo: Nopphon A new study in Addiction shows that smoking a single cigarette decreases life expectancy by an average of 20 minutes, reports CNN Health. The study is based off British smokers and was commissioned by the U.K. Department for Health and Social Care.
The research, which came out of University College London, estimated that the loss of life expectancy for men was about 17 minutes and for women was about 22 minutes.
According to Sarah Jackson, lead author of the paper and a principal research fellow in the UCL Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group, “20 cigarettes at 20 minutes per cigarette works out to be almost seven hours of life lost per pack.”
“The time they’re losing is time that they could be spending with their loved ones in fairly good health,” Jackson said. “With smoking, it doesn’t eat into the later period of your life that tends to be lived in poorer health. Rather, it seems to erode some relatively healthier section in the middle of life. So when we’re talking about loss of life expectancy, life expectancy would tend to be lived relatively good health.”
The research used mortality data from the British Doctors Study and the Million Women Study, showing that people who smoked throughout their lives lost, on average, around 10 years of life compared to nonsmokers. Life expectancy is similar in the U.S. for smokers versus nonsmokers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The amount of life expectancy that can be recovered by quitting smoking can depend on several factors, according to the new research.
“In terms of regaining this life lost, it’s complicated,” said Jackson. “These studies have shown that people who quit at a very young age—so by their 20s or early 30s—tend to have a similar life expectancy to people who have never smoked. But as you get older, you progressively lose a little bit more that you can’t regain by quitting.
“But no matter how old you are when you quit, you will always have a longer life expectancy than if you had continued to smoke. So, in effect, while you may not be reversing the life lost already, you’re preventing further loss of life expectancy.”
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Similar DNA Changes in Smokers and Vapers
Image: tonaquatic A new study from University College London (UCL) and the University of Innsbruck shows that e-cigarette users with limited smoking history have similar DNA changes to specific cheek cells as smokers, reports Medical Xpress.
The study was published in Cancer Research. It analyzed epigenetic effects of tobacco and e-cigarettes on DNA methylation in more than 3,500 samples to determine the impact on cells directly exposed to tobacco (e.g., cells in the mouth) and cells that are not directly exposed to tobacco (e.g., blood cells or cervical cells).
Data showed that epithelial cells in the mouth had substantial epigenomic changes in smokers. Similar epigenetic changes were seen in epithelial cells in the mouths of e-cigarette users who had smoked fewer than 100 tobacco cigarettes in their lifetime.
“This is the first study to investigate the impact of smoking and vaping on different kinds of cells—rather than just blood—and we’ve also strived to consider the longer term health implications of using e-cigarettes,” said Chiara Herzog, first author of the study.
“We cannot say that e-cigarettes cause cancer based on our study, but we do observe e-cigarette users exhibit some similar epigenetic changes in buccal cells as smokers, and these changes are associated with future lung cancer development in smokers,” Herzog said. “Further studies will be required to investigate whether these features could be used to individually predict cancer in smokers and e-cigarette users.”
“While the scientific consensus is that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking tobacco, we cannot assume they are completely safe to use, and it is important to explore their potential long-term risks and links to cancer,” said Herzog. “We hope this study may help form part of a wider discussion into e-cigarette usage—especially in people who have never previously smoked tobacco.”
The study also showed that some smoking-related epigenetic changes remained more stable than others after quitting smoking, including smoking-related epigenetic changes in cervical samples.
“The epigenome allows us, on one side, to look back,” said Martin Widschwendter, senior author of the study. “It tells us about how our body responded to a previous environmental exposure like smoking. Likewise, exploring the epigenome may also enable us to predict future health and disease. Changes that are observed in lung cancer tissue can also be measured in cheek cells from smokers who have not (yet) developed a cancer.
“Importantly, our research points to the fact that e-cigarette users exhibit the same changes, and these devices might not be as harmless as originally thought. Long-term studies of e-cigarettes are needed. We are grateful for the support the European Commission has provided to obtain these data.”
In response to the study, the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) released a statement.
“While the study data—which one leading academic has described as ‘crude’—implies a link to changes in cheek cells, which could potentially cause cancer, the study authors said their findings did not prove that e-cigarettes caused cancer,” the statement read.
“The study authors said their findings showed that vapes ‘might not be as harmless as originally thought,’ but it is important to make clear that nobody in the vape industry ever said that vaping was harmless. There are risks from vaping, but they are tiny compared to smoking,” the UKVIA said.
“This latest study,” the UKVIA statement said, “is also questioned by leading experts such as Peter Shields, an emeritus professor of medical oncology at Ohio State University. He states that critical pieces of information are missing and calls the smoking and vaping data that they are working from as ‘crude.’ He points to the fact that there is no biochemical verification that the vapers are actually not also smokers. He concludes that ‘researchers are still a far distance from being able to show causality, and the data looks like vapers are actually more like never smokers—implying their risk of cancer is not increasing by vaping.”