Generation Z thinks cigarettes are good for your health.
Young smokers are bringing back the sticks against cancer, and not just because they want to look like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Many Gen Zers say smoking cigarettes makes them feel “healthier” – especially those trying to quit vaping, who insist the change has solved their health problems.
As one young person says on TikTok, cigarettes are the “plant-based alternative” to vaping.
Currently on Reddit, Gen Zers are wondering if cigarettes could actually be better than disposable vapes or if vaping is really that much safer than a Marlboro. Meanwhile, on Instagram, accounts like @cigfluencer continue to pray at the altar of Joe Camel.
Ironically, many Zoomer smokers say cigarettes were their gateway to vaping — and now they’re returning to traditional cigarettes, just as tobacco stocks are hitting a five-year high. Philip Morris International has grown more than 100% over the past five years, while British American Tobacco has gained almost 73%.
Everest Simmons, a Gen Zer from Los Angeles, told the Post that she started smoking at age 13 before switching to vaping in her 20s, when JUUL, an e-cigarette brand, exploded in popularity.
“When I was vaping, a third of my breaths hit my vape,” Simmons remembers. “I noticed it was getting harder to catch my breath on walks or hikes. My skin was duller and my eyes looked dull.”
When she fractured a bone in her hand, six weeks passed without healing and her doctor explained that nicotine constricted blood vessels, restricting circulation and delaying recovery.
Simmons threw away her vapes — but when the cravings hit, she chose traditional cigarettes instead of a nicotine patch and a doctor-approved quit plan.
“At my next exam, I saw significant healing,” Simmons recalls. “I’m not saying that cigarettes are healthy, but people’s relationship with cigarettes is more lasting than with vaping.”
The 26-year-old said that after she quit vaping for cigarettes, her brain fog cleared and her energy returned. She also felt that her lung capacity improved significantly, as well as her social life.
“Vaping is isolating: everyone sits in a corner with their own device,” Simmons explained. “Cigarettes bring people together. Someone goes up on the porch, others follow, and suddenly we’re having real conversations without phones.”
Simmons posted a TikTok about his switch from vaping to cigarettes that reached 4.2 million views and over 650,000 likes. She’s not the only Gen Zer preaching the benefits of smoking regularly on TikTok.
Mollie Fraser posted her “controversial opinion” that cigarettes are healthier than vapes, and thousands of young smokers agreed in the comments, saying it’s a matter of organics or chemicals.
“I have never woken up 15 times a night to smoke a cigarette,” one user wrote.
“Vapes probably started out as a healthier alternative, but their convenience and discretion have made many people’s addictions worse,” wrote another.
Another video from vlogger Cora Hamilton claims that cigarettes are “spiritually healthy.” One fan agreed, saying his smoke break was a time to “hit the weed.”
The Post spoke with several young smokers who say cigarettes are better for them than vaping — but they asked to remain anonymous because, tellingly, they didn’t want their parents to find out they’d started smoking.
A 22-year-old New Yorker said that because cigarettes require more effort to buy, light and smoke than a vape, they are used less often — which he says is healthier than using a vape all the time.
“I actually think (cigarettes) are more discreet,” the young HR worker said, “because you have the shame of smoking a cigarette, but you can vape sneakily, which leads you to consume more nicotine.”
But experts warn that switching to cigarettes gives smokers an “illusion of control” that only excuses addiction.
Rebecca Boone, a licensed counselor specializing in addiction treatment, told the Post that smokers tend to have the vape “in their pocket” and use it to relieve stress after an email, in the car, while browsing and before bed:
“It becomes an unconscious decision, whereas going out and lighting a cigarette forces a beginning and an end,” she explained.
Still, Boone cautioned against confusing this with being less dependent or making a healthier decision.
“If stress occurs, nicotine follows, relief occurs and the brain relearns that sequence,” she told the Post. “The packaging has changed but the lesson has not.”
And of course, medical professionals are quick to denounce the “benefits” of cigarettes over vaping, saying those claims are even vaguer than a room full of Newport News ashtrays.
Dr. Carol Eisenstat, a board-certified physician and medical director of Line Eraser MD in New Jersey, told the Post that the idea that cigarettes are a healthier alternative to vaping is “concerning.”
“In my opinion, the most troubling aspect of this trend is the potential confounding of nicotine exposure with overall health risk,” Eisenstat explained. “A vape can deliver more nicotine than a cigarette in certain circumstances, but that doesn’t make smoking any healthier.”
Eisenstat said nicotine is addictive, but burning tobacco has a significant “disease burden” that vapes do not have.
“While vaping is not harmless, smoking cigarettes generally exposes the body to a much greater load of toxic chemicals,” Eisenstat told the Post. “In effect, you are replacing one nicotine delivery system with another, while introducing the well-established dangers of combustible tobacco. »
Addiction medicine specialist Dr. Sylvie Stacy, MD, MPH, also weighed in, saying cigarettes are in no way a healthier alternative because they are combustible.
“The vast majority of illnesses and deaths from smoking come from combustion,” Stacy told the Post. “It’s not the nicotine component itself. When you light dried plant matter on fire and inhale the smoke, you draw a lot of harmful chemicals, tar and carbon monoxide into your lungs.”
Stacy acknowledged that nicotine vapes on the market today contain significantly higher amounts of nicotine than cigarettes. Still, she says, that doesn’t make either option safe.
“Vaping carries risks, including nicotine addiction and lung irritation,” Stacy said. “But it certainly doesn’t make sense to switch to cigarettes to reduce these risks.”
Gn Health
