CDC: US Smoking Rate Unchanged
The smoking rates among US adults saw little or no change in 2008, according to a recent report from the US Centers For Disease Control And Prevention.
The CDC report shows that about 20 percent of US adults smoked last year, while 1,000 people started smoking each day.
In 2007, the CDC reported that 19.8 percent of US adults were smokers, making the recent report show the first increase in adult smoking since 1994.
"Overall smoking prevalence did not change significantly from 2007 to 2008," CDC researchers noted.
"In 2008, an estimated 20.6 percent (46 million) of U.S. adults were current cigarette smokers; of these, 79.8 percent (36.7 million) smoked every day, and 20.2 percent (9.3 million) smoked some days."
"Clearly, we’ve hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for tobacco-Free Kids, told the Associated Press.
From 1998 to 2008, the number of US adult smokers dropped 3.5 percent from. 24.1 percent to 20.6 percent.
The report defined smokers as people who had consumed at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, while current smokers were defined as smoking every day.
The CDC report also showed that just over 45 percent of smokers said they had attempted to kick the habit at least once during the past year.
"Legislators in states with high smoking rates must redouble their efforts to increase tobacco excise taxes, use that money to fund comprehensive programs to prevent children from starting to use tobacco and help current smokers quit," American Heart Association chief executive officer Nancy Brown said in a statement.
—
On the Net: