Gays Smoke More E-Cigarettes Than Straights
According to a new report from the Surgeon General's office, gay people vape e-cigarettes at higher rates than their straight counterparts.
A recent report issued by the U.S. Surgeon General’s office finds that LGBTQ Americans are more than twice as likely as their straight counterparts to have used electronic cigarettes.
According to the report, based on data from 2019 to 2021, nearly half of bisexual adults have tried some form of e-cigarette, including e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs, vaping pens, and hookah pens, compared with 31.8% percent of gay men and 26.7% of lesbians.
Statistics for transgender Americans’ tobacco use were not widely available for analysis in all areas of the report.
The report found similar disparities among young adults and high school students based on their sexual orientation.
For example, 42% of young adults who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual reported trying e-cigarettes, compared with 30.3% of their straight counterparts. Similarly, among high school students, 56% of LGB individuals reported vaping, compared to 49.8% of straight counterparts.
“Tobacco use is a singular health threat to LGBTQAI+ communities,” Kristy Marynak, a senior science adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a co-editor on the report, told NBC News. “This report finds that nearly 1 in 5 of all deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco, and it shines a light on the disproportionate burden borne by certain communities, including LGBTQAI+ communities.”
There is not a lot of research looking at the long-term health outcomes for people who use e-cigarettes, because they’re relatively new products. But some of the chemicals commonly found in e-cigarettes — acetaldehyde, acrolein, and formaldehyde — have negative health impacts according to experts.
E-cigarettes also contain nicotine, which is not only addictive but is believed to harm brain development among younger smokers, according to the CDC.
Dr. Scott Hadland, the chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Mass General for Children and Harvard Medical School, told NBC News that he has observed greater e-cigarette use among LGB-identifying youths.
Hadland said that LGBTQ people use tobacco products at higher rates due to a “long-standing stigma” within healthcare settings.
“LGBTQ+ people might be afraid to present for care to help support their quit attempts,” he said. “They might be afraid to talk to their doctor about it because they’re afraid to go to the doctor in general.”
Hadland also attributed higher e-cigarette use among LGBTQ Americans to marketing tactics. As noted in the report, the tobacco industry has historically marketed its products to specific groups, including the LGBTQ community.
For example, documents from tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds from 1995 to 1997 reveal that the company attempted to market products to the LGBTQI+ community through initiatives like “Project Scum,” which promoted Camel and Red Kamel cigarettes to “consumer subcultures” of an “alternative lifestyle in the San Francisco area. The project sought to exploit already high rates of drug use among LGBTQI+ youth by targeting head shops.
Even today, the tradition continues, with tobacco companies marketing their products, especially flavored and fragranced products, by advertising in LGBTQ-focused news outlets and donating to LGBTQ organizations and various Pride events.
According to the Surgeon General’s report, only 11.5% of U.S. adults reported being cigarette smokers as recently as 2021. But that still constitutes over 36 million U.S. adults. The report also estimates that about 760,000 middle and high school students smoke tobacco products.
Since 2014, e-cigarettes have surpassed traditional cigarettes as the most commonly used tobacco products.
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