Let me state the obvious: addictions are unhealthy. They reflect a lack of self-control and prevent us from making choices without external influence. They cloud a clear mind. However, what is worse is when the actions of a government entity obstruct our ability to overcome an addiction. One group in Washington, D.C., is doing just that.

As of 2024, statistics hold that approximately 480,000 Americans die from illnesses related to smoking annually. This is an increase from 418,690 deaths in 1990. Despite this rise, smoking still accounts for roughly 20% of all deaths.

In 2022, nearly 30 million Americans were smokers. Some smoke because they enjoy it and do so of their own free will. However, many others struggle to quit due to a developed addiction to nicotine. Nicotine is the addictive substance found in cigarettes, but it’s not the primary cause of the nearly half-million deaths that occur annually. Instead, the main danger comes from the toxic chemicals released during the burning of tobacco.

Unfortunately, misguided public health policies, driven by misinformed lawmakers, have resulted in unjustified opposition to safer alternatives for nicotine delivery, thereby hindering progress in overcoming smoking addiction.

Reducing the harm caused by tobacco is not a new concept. Nearly 50 years ago, tobacco researcher Michael Russell famously stated, “People smoke for the nicotine, but die from the tar.” Cigarettes contain almost 600 ingredients, which produce over 7,000 harmful chemicals when burned. These chemicals can lead to diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular issues, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The harm comes from the smoke, not the nicotine.

In the decades since the introduction of alternative nicotine products, researchers and manufacturers have invested billions of dollars into developing options that provide nicotine without combustion. Products such as Swedish snus, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and oral nicotine pouches have emerged. E-cigarettes, in particular, have been revolutionary but have also become targets of smear campaigns driven by misinformed lawmakers.

The modern e-cigarette was invented in 2003 by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, who was motivated by his father’s lung cancer death and his own struggle to quit smoking. Hon combined vaporization technology with the aim of creating a nicotine delivery system that would eliminate harmful byproducts. His device vaporized a nicotine liquid solution, producing an inhalable aerosol.

E-cigarettes were introduced to the U.S. in 2007, and by 2012, experienced an impressive growth of 150%. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, sales increased by 122.2% between mid-2014 and mid-2020. This trend continued, with a CDC report in 2023 indicating a 46.6% rise in monthly unit sales from 2020 through 2022.

E-cigarettes have proven to be less harmful than combustible cigarettes and effective in helping smokers quit. In 2015, Public Health England declared e-cigarettes to be 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, stated, “E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking … they carry just a fraction of the harm. The problem is people … think they are at least as harmful, and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting.” These findings were reaffirmed in 2020.

Similarly, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health stated that vaping (a key strategic tool for achieving their Smokefree 2025 goal) is significantly less harmful than smoking and can assist individuals in quitting.

However, in the U.S., millions of smokers are misled by lawmakers who continue to perpetuate the myth of a youth vaping epidemic.

In 2024, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, D-Il., chaired a hearing titled “Combating the Youth Vaping Epidemic by Enhancing Enforcement Against Illegal E-Cigarettes,” held despite CDC data indicating that youth e-cigarette use had reached its lowest level in a decade. Durbin and U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-IL., lead the Congressional Caucus to End the Youth Vaping Epidemic.

The caucus, launched in 2019, is predominantly Democrat and continues to utilize taxpayer-funded staff and resources to promote a campaign of misinformation about youth vaping in America, describing this issue as a “public health crisis” and ignoring the latest data from the CDC.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only 34 e-cigarette products out of the 26 million applications submitted during the Biden administration. This is widely viewed as a failure to provide smokers with safer alternatives to traditional tobacco products.

Although some liberal policymakers support bans and taxes as effective public health policies, these measures illustrate an anti-free-market approach. Furthermore, they disproportionately impact marginalized communities. Smoking rates are nearly twice as high among those living in poverty as those with economic stability and four times higher among individuals who didn’t complete high school.

If the goal of Dubin’s caucus is to promote a healthier America, then obstructing the use of tools that reduce the number of smokers and smoking-related illnesses and deaths seems contradictory. However, this is exactly what his caucus appears to be doing.

The incoming Trump administration, especially with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the secretary of Health and Human Services, can adopt a science-based approach to tobacco harm reduction that involves reforming the FDA’s approval process and recognizing vaping products as effective tools for smoking cessation.

Free from the influence of K Street interests, the promise of the incoming Trump administration offers hope for transforming public health policy into that guided by scientific evidence and innovation rather than fear-driven narratives.

Frank Salvato is the vice president of News & Information Operations for Global Emergent Media Communications (GEMCom), a subsidiary of LimComm, LLC. He is the host of the Underground USA podcast. Salvato has been published by the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, and Human Events, and can be heard twice weekly on the America’s “Third Watch” radio program syndicated on the Salem Broadcasting Network.