ATLANTA, Nov. 12, 2009
(AP) Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent.
U.S. Adult Smoking Rate Hits 15-Year High
Slightly More Than 20 Percent of Adult Americans Smoke, Report Finds
A little under 21 percent of Americans were current cigarette smokers, according to a 2008 national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up slightly from the year before, when just 19.8 percent said they were smoking. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts noted.
The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising. But they are unhappy.
"Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.- based research and advocacy organization.
There's a general perception that smoking is a dying public health danger. Feeding that perception are indoor smoking laws, cigarette taxes and Congress's recent decision to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.
But health officials believe gains have been undermined by cuts in state tobacco control campaigns. Also, the tobacco industry has been discounting cigarettes to offset tax increases and keep smokes affordable, Willmore said, citing tobacco industry sales data.
The adult smoking rate has been dropping, in starts and stops, since the mid-1960s when roughly 2 out of 5 U.S. adults smoked. Now it's 1 in 5. However, federal health goals for the year 2010 had hoped to bring the rate down to close to 1 in 10.
Adult smoking hovered at about 21 percent from 2004 to 2006, then dropped a full percentage point in 2007, said Dr. Matthew McKenna, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.
The 2007 drop gave CDC officials hope that U.S. smoking was plummeting again. "Now that appears to be a statistical aberration," McKenna said.
The new survey's results come from in-person interviews of nearly 22,000 U.S. adults.
The study was released Thursday, published in the CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Also on Thursday, the CDC released state-by-state results on smoking from a different survey, conducted by telephone, of more than 400,000 adults. West Virginia and Indiana had the highest smoking rates, at about 26 percent, but four other states - Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee - had rates about as high.
Utah had, by far, the lowest smoking rate, with only about 9 percent of Utah residents describing themselves as current smokers.
Many of the states that have the lowest smoking rates are those that have been the most aggressive about indoor smoking laws and about state taxes that drive up the cost of cigarettes, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC's director.
Health officials are optimistic that more and more smokers will be discouraged from lighting up by escalating cigarette taxes, including a 62-cent federal tax that took effect in April. Perhaps the recession will have an impact, too.
"In general, when people have less money, they smoke less," Frieden said. "Time will tell."
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On the Net:
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 26 Comments
- I'm not against smoking as it is a very efficient method to weed out weak genes from the gene pool. Anyone stupid enough to spend big money to cut their life short, wrinkle their skin prematurely and make it less healthy obviously is afflicted with a major "STUPID" gene. Too bad the rest of us forced to subsidize their health care. There is enough bad crap out there waiting to get you without helping it along.
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- Why doesn't everyone mind their own business. If I can pay for illegals insurance I can pay for smokers (especially if their citizens) In the meantime, go ahead and light up. Who the heck wants to die healthy anyways?
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- Smoking is fun!
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- 20% of adults smoke
while -------->>>>>>>>>
USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions
58 Million Overweight;
40 Million Obese;
3 Million morbidly Obese
Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
25% completely Sedentary
76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990
Looks to me like there are more important issues to deal with... - Reply to this comment
- There is more cancer causing ingredients in the exhaust coming from your car than all the cigarette smoke put together.
Yet no one is doing anything about that....
So enjoy that next traffic jam, That a deep breath and RELAX... - Reply to this comment
- I am so glad we'll have national healthcare with regulated, subsidized rates. Then I get to pay for all of the health problems caused by smokers. So please light up -- the government will bail you out too!
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- I am more worried about texting, blabbing drivers at this point than second hand smoke. Where are you insurance industry lobbyists??
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- They should be paying a lot higher taxes. I don't mind paying more for health insurance to cover those who are sick because of no fault of their own. However, I do object on paying one penny more for the fools that smoke, (or eat too much sugar.)
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- how do you feel about paying for aids patients? And how do you feel about obama now allowing people with aids to immigrate? That's a pretty sweet deal. Actually, smokers pay the highest taxes of anybody, and that money is gobbled up for everything but stopping people from smoking. It's a cash cow for the government. We should be hugging smokers and sending them xmas cards. Aids patients, by comparison, are far more costly to health insurance.
- How do you feel about paying for a knee replacement for a marathon runner? How do you feel about paying for lifetime care of a boxer that contracts Alzheimer at age fifty? If smokers and people that eat too much sugar have no rights, what is next? Sin taxes do nothing to fix the problem, as you can see. We just saw a huge tax increase on tobacco and the amount of smokers went up.
- Of course.
Every single star in movies smokes now and the little American sheep want to be just like a movie star.
The tobacco companies pay the movie producers to show people smoking.
Great job tobacco companies, you got your bribe money's worth.
Of course the fact that those 20% are total idiots doesn't hurt. - Reply to this comment
- If more people are smoking, what in the world are these states and feds doing with the 2.00 or more a pack they are pulling in ? Maybe more people should go to Mexico and buy them. As long as you don't tell the border patrol you got them. They are only 12.00 a carton. Seems only thing they did with all this tax is make the black market for them that much more rich..
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- if you smoke do what I do. Take a trip every few months to states VA. NC. with no or low state taxes on tobacco. Then when one of my friends or co-workers makes a crack like hey keep paying those high taxes, we need the money, I turn to them and say actually I import mine so I don't pay any state taxes at all. Then i go on to say how it is not my responsibility to pay for health care for the poor because I choose to smoke. It's fun because it really pisses self-righteous people off
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- I am so tired of anti-smoking legislation. My state of Tennessee made a law in 2007 that prohibits smoking in private businesses. If I own a business, it's MY business to decide who does what within its doors. Watch out, non-smoking advocates: They'll come for YOU next with legislation to outlaw certain FOODS that can be sold and served in restaurants and groceries.
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- I have been saying for years that people should not be so self-righteous and judgmental about the smoking issue, and legally force their opinions on others, because once that door is opened, it can't be closed again, and the next issue may be something that these same self-righteous people care about. Once you allow freedoms to be taken away, you can't stop it, and you can't pick and choose which freedoms will be discarded--it's not up to you, because you gave that right away.
- Can't smoke in your own business, but darn if you can't have toxic fumes in the place...
This is too much...
- Wake up people. Smoking not only kills yourself, but it kills everyone else who is forced to breath you smoke. That is why it is illegal to smoke in your own busiess, because you many have employees who don't have a say what they breath. That is why smoking is being banned everyone.
- So does toxic fumes, but that still is legal to have in your business...
LOL - Penny wise, Pound foolish...
- "Wake up people. Smoking not only kills yourself, but it kills everyone else who is forced to breath you smoke. That is why it is illegal to smoke in your own busiess, because you many have employees who don't have a say what they breath. That is why smoking is being banned everyone."
Drink the kool-aid much? This is a capitalist market, not a communist system, you can work where you want. No one is forced to work anywhere. A bar owner should be able to decide whether smoking is allowed or not just as the employee can decide to work there or not. In some states it is okay to post job announcements that say smokers need not apply. It would only make sense that a job announcement could say non-smokers need not apply.
- Duh, we are all stressed out over the lack of leadership and looting of the citizen taxpayer by both parties.
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