July 27, 2007
Poll: Fewest U.S. Smokers Since 1944
21% Of U.S. Adults Currently Smoke Cigarettes, Compared To 41% Six Decades Ago, Survey Shows
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(AP)
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News Tools Lung Cancer Learn more about the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the United States.
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Photo Essay Smoking Bans Some breathe deeply while others fume as tough anti-smoking rules catch on.
That smoking statistic has never been lower since Gallup began polling people in the U.S. about smoking — though it's roughly the same figure as in 1999, 2004, and 2006.
Gallup first started asking people in the U.S. about their smoking habits in 1944. Back then, 41 percent of poll participants reported smoking. Since then, smoking's health risks — including cancer, heart disease, and many other conditions — have been widely reported.
This year's Gallup smoking statistic is very low, but it's not quite an all-time low. "From a statistical perspective, a 22 percent reading in 2004 and a pair of 23 percent measurements in 1999 and 2006 would be considered equivalent to the current reading," states Gallup.
Curious about how Gallup's smoking poll results stack up against official government statistics on smoking?
In October 2006, the CDC reported that nearly 21 percent of U.S. adults had smoked cigarettes in the past year — but that America's eight-year drop in smoking had stalled.
This year's Gallup poll on smoking also shows that most current smokers — 55 percent — report smoking less than a pack of cigarettes daily.
That's another sign of changing times. From 1944 until 1990, fewer than half of current smokers told Gallup that they smoked less than one pack of cigarettes per day.
Gallup's new smoking poll also shows that 81 percent of current smokers say they would like to give up smoking and 79 percent say they're addicted to smoking.
In addition, Gallup reports that one in four current smokers report starting to smoke before age 16. That percentage hasn't been lower since 1991, according to Gallup.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
© 2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 21 CommentsI quit in 1973, cold turkey, as they say. I try to help others to quit, some tell me to mind my own business, I tell them if you smoke up the air I am breathing it is my business, besides as far as I am concerned, when you smoke you are killing yourself, same as if you are falling from a cliff, all I am doing is tossing you a rope to hold on to. You can grab the rope or not. That's up to you.
our blowhard politicians her in Chicago want to raise more taxes on cigs raising the price of a pack to nearly $8.00!!!! not a carton, a PACK!
The delay of 29-30 years in observing the effects of smoking can not explain the situation because non smokers reflecting the growing community would not have been affected because they never smoked we should have seen the results of reduced smoking decades ago if it were as significantly associated to the diseases as we have been lead to believe.
This information should give us all reason to reflect on the reasons common sense and the power of communities has always dominated industrial interests and through regulation has kept them in check. Industries fired middle managers and promoted brain storming a while back they discovered the secret of inclusions. Now they seek to impose the old top down corporate structure on us, taking away our greatest advantage with the promotions of Globalization.
Communities and real villages are based in thousands of years of trial and error top down corporations reflect the wisdom of a few educated leaders who win and loose based on their decisions alone. Communities dominated top down will always suffer the effects of small brain pools and conflicted interests The UN is a poor model for community leadership. Isn't it time we took back the decisions of communities by seeking out true representation by more than industry sponsored braggarts who claim to know what is best for communities stealing even our right to manage our own lives and families.
Smoking exposure can be managed by a sign on the door any fool can see that.
The real number of smokers at that time has remained virtually constant at close to 55 million despite a steady and almost static decline in population prevalence numbers due to population increases at .7% per year, taking us to a figure close to 24%. Stats indicated last year the declines had stalled and among the young increases were noticed for the first time in 50 years. The numbers would indicate with so much focus being directed to kids, the actual effect of the anti smoking movement prescribing smoking bans dividing communities and punishing an addiction with taxation. Efforts have been a disaster and the new Public Health formerly known as the Galton Institute, has been ineffective in their goals to reduce smoking and reduce mortality figures. This can be better understood in a figure they have yet to address.
With declines noted for over 50 years, how is it diseases largely believed to be attributed to smoking continue to climb, at unbelievable rates? Increases above even the more than doubled population figures, which above all else illustrates the more predominant reason for static declines in smoking proportions in populations versus the actual number of smokers which by the gallop poll figures are increased by close to 5 million smokers recently.
Smoking is very very hard to quit. Alcohol I could take it or leave it. My kids vowed when they were young that they would never smoke. The irony of it all is that my kids (all older by now) started smoking when their dad died of lung cancer. Go figure.
You must never give up on trying to quit.I know from from reading medical journals that nicotine is more addicting than crack cocaine.This is why you are having such a diffucult time to quit.
The tobacco companys,those merchants of death,
lied to you,me and everytone else over the last century with their bogus claims on the joys of tobacco smoking.
Please never stop trying to quit
I send you mt best wishes.
My Dad's friend is a smoker and she told me the state will make her pay her meds bills dues to her failure to quit. I looked it up and sure it is there on computer.
My dear that's alot but cigerettes are a slave. My friend quit cold turkey for health reasons. Yes it was hard but he beat them. Plus he saved money by not smoking for other things. My friend is 55. We are all slave to something ...have a good nite.
elicits a ten thousand dollar fine.
the housekeeping police will come by to
make sure your house, apt, car you live in
or trailer, meets the politburo's parameters.
cleanliness is next to godliness. ****
and span at all times. so that there
can be more employment. and cleanliness.
society for the rights of plants.
parking to go sky high. excuse, revenue
enhancement. like ten thousand dollars
an hour to park anywhere. in coins.
place getting cleaner. soon all the smokers
will be dead. all the fresh air fiends
will have their precious fresh air and their
precious bodily fluids ever so neat, tidy
and clean. we're just blips in the cosmos
microscope anyway. a little speck of a
speck of a speck. of no significance whatsoever.
you might delude yourself and think otherwise.
did you know scientists have proven beyond
the shadow of a reasonable doubt that the
world of make-believe is 100% fact and real?
why of course.
3 packs a day. i buy ten cartons a month.
slow suicide actually. might as well enjoy
killing yourself. gotta die of something.
do whatever you want in life, but you'll
have to pay the price for it. i'm 56.
copd, ihss, ms, other related diseases.
ssi, medicaid. how nice of the govt.
to pay for my habit. how kind and generous.
what a way to go, frying my lungs. tried
to quit thousands of times. no dice. have
to stay home all the time, because smoking
is illegal in public.
You can smoke, but do you want your child or
mother or anyone you love to smoke. If you are
in perspective, you would want them to live a
healthy life.
Why not do the same for yourself?
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