📉 Lung Cancer: How Vaping Contributes to the Decline in Smoking and Mortality in the United States

For several years now, the United States has recorded a steady decline in both the incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer. According to official data from the SEER program (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results), the mortality rate dropped by 4.1% annually between 2013 and 2022, while the incidence rate decreased by 2% annually from 2012 to 2021. These major improvements are largely attributed to the reduction in smoking, the primary risk factor for lung cancer.

In this context, electronic cigarettes are playing an increasingly important role, offering a less harmful alternative and a genuine harm reduction tool.

🚭 Smoking Down, Vaping Up

Tobacco use is responsible for approximately 90% of lung cancer cases. Reducing its consumption is therefore a key lever in public health. In the United States, adult smoking prevalence has dropped significantly since the 2000s, especially among younger generations.

At the same time, vaping has emerged as a widely adopted alternative.

🔎 According to the 2023 CDC National Health Interview Survey, 6.5% of American adults report regularly using e-cigarettes—equivalent to around 16 million people.

📌 Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db524.htm

Vaping is particularly popular among young adults (aged 18–24), with a prevalence rate reaching 15.5% in 2023. This demographic has historically been the most likely to take up smoking—making this substitution especially significant.

🔄 Vaping: An Effective Harm Reduction Strategy

Unlike combustible tobacco, electronic cigarettes involve no combustion, and therefore produce no tar or carbon monoxide—two of the main carcinogenic substances found in cigarette smoke.

Numerous independent studies, including those by Public Health England and Santé Publique France, estimate that vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking. It enables many smokers to either quit entirely or drastically reduce their consumption of traditional cigarettes.

📊 A Measurable Public Health Impact

The SEER data is unequivocal:

226,650 new cases of lung cancer expected in the United States in 2025

But a clear downward trend over the past decade: ➤ –4.1%/year in mortality (2013–2022)
➤ –2.0%/year in incidence (2012–2021)

5-year survival rate (all stages combined): 28.1%
5-year survival rate for localized forms: 64.7%

📌 Source: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html

These trends reflect both medical progress and preventive public health policies—of which vaping is now a full-fledged component.

🚨 The Overwhelming Burden of Tobacco-Linked Cancers

Lung and bronchial cancer, caused in the vast majority of cases by smoking, remains the deadliest cancer in the United States. According to official SEER data (National Cancer Institute), it is projected to cause 124,730 deaths in 2025 alone.

That same study also estimates 226,650 new diagnoses of lung cancer for the year 2025. This illustrates not only the disease’s lethality, but also its alarming frequency.

Lung cancer alone kills more people each year than the combined total of several other major cancers:

• Prostate: 35,770 deaths

• Breast: 42,680 deaths

• Colorectal: 52,900 deaths

• Pancreatic: 51,980 deaths

• Kidney and renal pelvis: 14,510 deaths

• Oral cavity and pharynx: 12,770 deaths

• Leukemia: 23,540 deaths

• Lymphoma: 20,540 deaths

• Skin (excluding non-melanoma): 14,110 deaths

Altogether, these cancers account for approximately 268,830 deaths, highlighting how lung cancer alone dominates cancer-related mortality.

This stark reality underscores the urgency of reducing exposure to combustible tobacco products—the leading cause of this avoidable catastrophe. Vaping, as a less harmful alternative, represents a tangible solution to help reverse this deadly trend.

✅ In Conclusion: Vaping as a Public Health Lever

American data shows that the adoption of vaping has coincided with a swift and sustained decline in smoking—and, consequently, a reduction in lung cancer rates. Though not without controversy, the electronic cigarette is emerging as a credible public health tool, particularly within a harm reduction framework.

When regulated, informed, and used responsibly, vaping contributes to a smoke-free future.