Cigarette Smoking Is at a Record Low in the US

Can you spare a cigarette? Statistically, the answer is increasingly no. New government data show that the number of adults in the US who smoke cigarettes is at the lowest level ever, CBS reports, with 14% (34 million) saying in 2017 that they smoke cigarettes every day or some days. That’s 1.5% lower than 2016. But that’s for cigarette smoking only. The data show that some 20% of US adults overall still use some kind of nicotine product, which includes cigarettes, as well as cigars, e-cigarettes (increasingly popular with younger people), chewing tobacco, and so on, per USA Today, which notes that cigarette smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the US, contributing to about 480,000 deaths annually. Among groups with the highest use of any tobacco product are people with a GED (42.6%); people with no health insurance (31%); and people with an annual income of less than $35,000 (26%), according to the CDC. (The maker of Marlboro will stop selling most of its flavored e-cig products.)