Heavy Smokers Decrease, Light Smokers Increase

The CDC is out with new stats on smoking, and the big headline is that the number of adults who partake has fallen from 20.9% in 2005 to 19.3% in 2010, report MedPage Today and the Wall Street Journal. That means about 3 million fewer people are smoking today, but "it's been much slower than the rate of decline in the previous five years," says a CDC official. "We can certainly do much better."

Other highlights:

• The number of heavy smokers (30 or more cigarettes per day) fell from 12.7% to 8.3% over the same period.
• The number of light smokers (one and nine cigarettes per day) increased from 16.4% to 21.8%.
• Daily smokers puffed an average of 15.1 cigarettes per day in 2010, down from 16.7 in 2005.

(More smoking stories.)