MONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. government has shut down or paused several major anti-smoking efforts.

Public health leaders say the cuts could reverse decades of progress that have smoking rates in the country at all-time lows.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made major cuts to tobacco control offices at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Dozens of workers were let go, including Brian King, the FDA's top tobacco regulator.

The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, which led work on smoking cessation and research into youth tobacco use, was also cut.

Former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, now president of the global health organization Resolve to Save Lives, called the decision a "gift to Big Tobacco."

"The only winner here is the tobacco industry and cancer cells," Frieden told NBC News.

One of the biggest casualties? The CDC’s popular "Tips From Former Smokers" ad campaign. The program, which began in 2012, features real people who suffered health damage from smoking.

A study published recently in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research shows that the ads lead to a sharp rise in calls to quitlines each time they air.

"We estimate the Tips campaign generated nearly 2.1 million additional calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW during 2012-2023," the researchers wrote.

1-800-QUIT-NOW, the national quitline, connects callers to state programs.

Now, with the CDC's tobacco office staff cut, the campaign may go off the air, a former employee said.

In 2023, the CDC gave more than $84 million to state health departments to run quitlines and help smokers quit. Thirteen states may lose at least 30% of their funding, and five states -- Connecticut, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia -- rely on the CDC for at least 75% of their quitline support, NBC News said.

"With 'Tips' not being on the air, fewer adults will quit," said a CDC employee who was fired last week and asked to not be identified.

“If we take our foot off the gas, what do we think will happen?” the employee said. “Tobacco use rates will increase among youth and fewer adults will quit. Because of that, people will die.”

Other losses include research projects on tobacco use and the National Youth Tobacco Survey, which tracks smoking and vaping trends among teens. This survey first identified a spike in youth vaping in 2018.

Kevin Caron, another fired CDC employee, helped trace the deadly 2019 vaping outbreak to vitamin E acetate in fake THC vapes. He said at least five major research projects may end “unless people just independently decide in their free time that they’re going to try to work on them."

Despite the cuts, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said tobacco efforts would continue and that the move was part of a larger plan to “streamline operations, enhance responsiveness to the American people, and ultimately improve the nation’s health as part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative.”

More information

The American Lung Association has more on overall smoking trends.

SOURCES: NBC News, April 3, 2025; Nicotine & Tobacco Research, February 2025