With electronic cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, cigarettes are becoming less popular. Teenagers and young adults are buying Juuls and other forms of vapes  instead of cigarettes, causing the number of sales to drop lower.

Cigarettes are filled with unhealthy chemicals that can cause diseases like lung disease, heart disease and cancer. With more known facts about cigarettes, children are taught about the dangers of them at an early age. Each year during health class, students are reminded that cigarettes are dangerous and the leading cause of preventable death. This is causing the newer generations to be cautious.

Currently, electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes, are popular among the younger generations. These vapes are tobaccoless but still have nicotine and other dangerous chemicals. Vape sales are rising while cigarette sales are decreasing. Originally, vapes were meant to help people stop smoking and be a safer alternative for cigarettes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco production has declined from 1980 with nearly 180,000 tobacco farms to about 10,000 in 2012. Between 2014-2015, electronic cigarette sales grew 14.4 percent. A researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina found that smoking has hit an all time low.

“The good news is that these data are consistent with the declines in adult cigarette smoking that we’ve seen for several decades,” said Corinne Graffunder,director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

Because of the major rise in electronic cigarettes, cigarette companies like Marlboro are losing sales and money. They are competing with Juul Labs and other companies in the electronic cigarette market. However, these electronic cigarettes still have the addictive nicotine, they just lack the tobacco.

Not only are less people smoking, more smokers are trying to or successfully quitting the habit. According to the CDC, in 2015, 55.3 percent of male smokers tried to quit and only 7.2 successfully did quit. There are many different methods for smokers to make an attempt to quit. Users often try to quit cold turkey or use different treatments like gum, patches and lozenges. Quitting cold turkey means to randomly quit without any extra treatments and giving up smoking completely. Every user is different and every treatment works differently so there are no statistics on the best and most effective way to quit.

Overall, smoking has dropped significantly causing sales to drop and users to begin using different forms of tobacco or electronic cigarettes. The lessons in school that explain the dangers and risks of smoking have impacted the number of smokers.

Although smoking has become less popular, there are still nearly 38 million smokers in the United States according to the CDC. Researchers hope to see the data decrease more each year and to see more people quitting.