1 day Ago By USA TODAY
Smoking already seemed to be making a comeback in pop culture. Now, with President Donald Trump 's administration gutting the FDA and CDC , will tobacco's grip on young people grow tighter? On Tuesday, dozens of staffers in the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products received notices of dismissal, including the entire office responsible for enforcing tobacco regulations and the head of the center, Brian King. The Trump administration also made cuts to the CDC’s office of smoking and health, which aims to prevent tobacco use, especially among kids.
Anti-tobacco groups have blasted the layoffs, with Yolonda C. Richardson, the president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, calling them “deeply irresponsible" and saying they will slow efforts to “protect kids and save lives." On top of this, experts say, the cuts come at a time when the smoking aesthetic of decades past seems to be back in vogue.
Many young celebrities, including Dua Lipa , Lily-Rose Depp and Jenna Ortega , have flaunted cigarettes in recent years, and more young people are indulging in social smoking, especially on nights out. Some anti-smoking advocates worry that these cuts will only exacerbate this trend, sending a message to young people that smoking isn't just cool, but also not that big of a deal for your health. The reality, however, is the complete opposite.
"The American Lung Association is deeply dismayed about the administration's decision to eliminate so much of what is protecting our nation's kids from the tobacco industry," says Erika Sward, the assistant vice president of national advocacy at the American Lung Association. "Now there is no one to keep the tobacco industry from flooding the market with its deadly products, and there is no one left at CDC to count how many kids they addict." Trump's cuts and why smoking is 'cool' again Prior to the cuts, the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products had cracked down on illegal vapes and proposed slashing nicotine levels in cigarettes, most cigars and other tobacco products.
The New York Times reported that rates of e-cigarette use by teens fell consistently under King's leadership of the center. Mitch Zeller, who headed the FDA’s tobacco center from 2013 to 2022, says he doesn’t see a clear strategy in how the Trump administration will prevent smoking and tobacco use moving forward. “Every new administration should have the opportunity to come and take their time to reassess and figure out what things could be done better,” Zeller says.
“But there's been nothing thoughtful about any of this. It's thoughtless.” Mass layoffs at HHS: Latest news on the moves at CDC, NIH and FDA; live updates This is a big problem, because, among young people especially, smoking seems to be cool again.
Seemingly gone were the days of Audrey Hepburn and James Dean lighting up a cigarette and becoming the picture of sophistication and mystique; but now, vintage and throwback aesthetics are all the rage − including the cigarette use of decades past. Dr. Amit Mahajan, a volunteer medical spokesperson for American Lung Association, finds the trend troubling, and he thinks the recent cuts to government health organizations will do little to help.
"We had a nice kind of improvement, honestly, over the last two decades," he says. "It's starting to come back, and again, I think it's this perception that it's something that is cool to do, very much like we saw in the '60s and '70s." One the best ways to combat the trendiness of smoking, Sward says, is with information, education and regulation.
These cuts, however, are a blow to organizations aimed at those things, she says. "There's no cop on the beat anymore that is aiming to protect kids from tobacco products," Sward says. "This is Christmas day for the tobacco industry.
" What pop culture gets wrong about smoking It's important for young people to know that pop culture often doesn't depict the full ramifications of smoking. "We've been spending decades trying to show kids and adults that smoking isn't a cool thing to do," Mahajan says. "It comes through as a rebellious, kind of very macho approach to life, but, at the end of the day, you're looking at the glorified aspect of it, used by some hero in a movie.
But they don't see the tarred teeth, they don't see the emphysema, the hacking cough, all of those things that really are the result of tobacco smoke." Many young people also justify their smoking by keeping it compartmentalized − they may only indulge in a cigarette or two with friends after a night out, or while vacationing in Europe. The smoking aesthetic is back in style.
Shouldn't people know better by now? The problem with this, health experts say, is that social smoking doesn’t really exist. Those who try it aren’t as immune to addiction as they may believe. “People think they can just do this and it won’t affect them,” Susan Whitbourne, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, previously told USA TODAY.
“This slippery slope exists between social smoking and smoking, and because of the nature of addictions, it’s very hard to break one completely.” Will Trump's cuts to the FDA and CDC cause more people to relax their view of smoking? As smoking becomes cool again, will decades of anti-tobacco activism be undone? It's hard to say − but so far, Mahajan says, the future doesn't look promising. "It really is devastating, because we've been spending a lot of time − not only lung doctors, but again, the American Lung Association and a number of other organizations − trying to squash this idea that smoking is something that's worth doing and worth the risk," he says.
"It almost feels like we're starting all over again." Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff, Sarah D. Wire, Josh Meyer, Bart Jansen, Ken Alltucker, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Eduardo Cuevas, Sudiksha Kochi and Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump ousted the FDA's tobacco chief.
Why is smoking 'cool' again?.
