US Smoking Rates Plateau

US Smoking Rate plateau

The rate of decrease in the number of Americans who smoke have slowed down, and the percentage of smokers has held steady from 20 to 21 percent since 2005, according to the latest government data released on Tuesday.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed that the number of adult smokers have declined between 2000 and 2005, but the percentage of adult smokers remained stagnant at 20-21 percent since 2005.

About 24 percent of men and 18 percent of women smoked in 2009, according to the CDC.

“Smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in this country,” said CDC director Thomas Frieden. “But progress is possible. Strong state laws that protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, higher cigarette prices, aggressive ad campaigns that show the human impact of smoking and well-funded tobacco control programs decrease the number of adult smokers and save lives.”

The agency said that second-hand smoke still pose a significant health risk for many children, with 54 percent of kids age three and 11 exposed to second-hand smoke.

More education is also seen as correlated to less smoking, with fewer than six percent of those with graduate diplomas smoked, compared to more than 25 percent for those who did not finish high school.

Smoking is a leading cause of heart and lung diseases like emphysema, as well as some types of cancer in both smoking and non-smoking adults. Second-hand smoke is implicated in cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

The CDC said that the government is strengthening efforts to curb smoking and reach tobacco use targets by 2020.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday September 08 2010, 10:27 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0