Smoking in US Declining, but Slowly
Smokeout® an Opportunity to Kick the Habit
Article date: 2004/11/18
Fewer Americans smoked in 2003 than in 2002, according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But people aren't giving up the habit quickly enough for the nation to meet its 2010 health goals, the agency reported.
"We know that smoking rates can be massively lower than they are," said Corinne Husten, MD, director of the CDC's Center for Smoking and Health. "[Smoking rates] are going down, but too slowly."
In 2003, 22.1% of adults in the US smoked, a drop of about half a percentage point from the previous year (22.5% of American adults smoked in 2002). The 2010 health goals, however, envision just 12% of American adults as smokers.
So far, only Utah has met that goal. The state had the lowest smoking rate in the nation in 2003, with 14% of men and 10% of women lighting up, for an overall average of 12%. Kentucky was the worst performer; nearly 31% of adults there smoked (about 34% of men and 28% of women).
The findings were based on an annual telephone survey of US households, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. The CDC published the new statistics in the Nov. 12 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Vol. 53, No. 44: 1035-1037).
Quitting Crucial for Health
Getting people to give up smoking is vitally important, public health experts say, because of the terrible toll tobacco takes on the nation's health and economy.
"People have a general sense that it's bad," Husten said, "but they don't understand the magnitude of the risk."
Smoking kills about 440,000 people every year and causes at least 10 types of cancer, as well as heart disease, emphysema, and other serious illnesses. The 2004 Surgeon General's report on smoking estimated that the habit costs the US more than $157 billion a year in medical care and lost productivity.
Quitting has an almost immediate impact on a smoker's health. Within minutes, blood pressure and heart rate drop. After a few hours, levels of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the blood return to normal. Within a few weeks or months, lung function, coughing, and shortness of breath improve. Over the course of 1-15 years, former smokers can expect their risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer to drop.
But tobacco is tough to beat. "Nicotine addiction is a disease," Husten said.
Strategies that include medication, nicotine replacement, and counseling can help smokers quit, she noted. And social policies like clean indoor air laws and higher cigarette prices can help them stay quit.
Every November, the American Cancer Society tries to help smokers take the first steps along the quitting path by sponsoring the Great American Smokeout. The event, which takes place on Nov. 18 this year, encourages smokers to quit -- for the day, and ideally for good.
Last year, more than 8 million smokers took part in the event, and more than 2 million managed to go an entire day without a cigarette.
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