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Fewer Than 20% of US Adults Smoke, a First

Rate drops, though 43M still light up; 443K die yearly as result

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 13, 2008 2:10 PM CST

(Newser) – Smoking in the US is at its lowest since cigarettes became widespread after World War I, Reuters reports, with fewer than 20% of adults in the country lighting up—the lowest figure on record. Observers credit the gradual decline to awareness, bans on smoking in public places, and prohibitive taxation. Still, smoking is estimated to kill 443,000 people a year.

The recent availability of proven stop-smoking aids has also led to the decline. When a pioneering report about the ills of tobacco appeared in the mid-1960s, 42% of Americans smoked. The decline in recent years has been more gradual, but the 2007 statistics were a full point below 2006. “We've begun to come full circle,” an American Cancer Society official said.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

Dave McBee, left, a U.S. Marine combat veteran of the Iraq War, lights a cigarette. (AP Photo)

A Marlboro cigarette burns as it sits on a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. (AP Photo)

A man smokes in Louisiana. "You want it, you got to pay for it, " he said. (AP Photo)

Mark Wheeler smokes a cigarette outside of a coffee shop,in Des Moines, Iowa. The state's new smoking ban, which went into effect on Tuesday, affects most workplaces, restaurants and bars. (AP Photo)

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The tobacco industry is very good at creating confusion and misinformation. And the more education people have, the less likely they are to believe some of the myths and misinformation that the industry promulgates. - Dr. Matthew McKenna, CDC

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Fewer Than 20% of US Adults Smoke, a First