Quitting Smoking — More and More Americans Are Kicking The Habit

More Americans Are Quitting Smoking -- CDC

Quitting smoking is tough to do for anyone who has picked up the nasty habit, Americans included. But a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows more Americans are puffing less these days although the percentage is not that significant as health officials had hoped.

From 21 percent of U.S. adults who smoked in 2005, the percentage has dropped to 19.3 percent last year, Tuesday's report revealed. Also encouraging is that less people are smoking more than 30 sticks of cigarettes per day. That measure fell from 13 percent to 8 percent in a five-year gap. Some 27,000 people aged 18 and older were interviewed for the study.

The drop is contributed to efforts like clean air laws, cigarette taxes and anti-smoking ordinances. Based on the data, 3 million adults have either quit smoking or in the process of quitting smoking, as suggested by a decline in cigarettes per day.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said that while the latest statistics are promising, the rate of decline was still slower than expected, and tobacco continues to be a bane to the health of many Americans. He encouraged people to quit smoking now to avoid disaster.

"You don't have to be a heavy smoker or a long-time smoker to get a smoking-related disease or have a heart attack or asthma attack," Dr. Frieden said in a news briefing.

Quitting smoking is hard enough to be left to the decision of smokers themselves, officials say. Government regulation on tobacco products has made some headway into reducing smoking rates. Among the newest measures is requiring graphic labels of body damage caused by smoking.

Strong tobacco control is being fought by the tobacco industry in court. But health officials are convinced that quitting smoking will lift a heavy burden on burgeoning health care costs.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday September 07 2011, 1:45 AM EDT. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0