Smoking rates stop falling

The CDC has reported that smoking rates in the US have remained the same over the last few years after having fallen year on year for the previous 7 years (1997-2004).

The government’s target is to have only 12% of the adult population smoking by 2010 but the figures suggest that they will miss the target by a long shot.

Statistics show that 20.8% of the adult population smoked last year representing a total of 45 million adults. The statistics also show that a total of 91 million Americans have been smokers at some point in their lives (defined as smoking over 100 cigarettes in their lives).

The report indicated that 80% of smokers smoked every day and 44% of smokers had tried at least once to quit smoking.

Evidence suggests that quitting smoking is the single most advantageous change a smoker can make in their lives to improve their health and lower risks of smoking related disease, such as cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease and stroke.