Adult Smoking Rates All Time Low

Last year, American adults who smoked cigarettes reached an all time low, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, the decreased smoking rates, while encouraging, is not low enough to meet the federal goal of 12 percent by 2020, the CDC noted.

In 1965, when the government began to track smoking rates, 42.2 percent of adults smoked, according to Reuters.

The report found that the adults who smoke are smoking less than they once did. In 2005, about 20.9 percent of adults smoked an average of 16.7 cigarettes a day. In 2013, about 17.8 percent of American adults smoked an average of 14.2 cigarettes a day, down from 20.9 percent in 2005.

The CDC attributes the decreased smoking rate to:

• Higher Cigarette Prices
• Smoke-free Policies
• Anti-smoking Campaigns
• Increased Access to Medications
• Programs that Help Smokers Quit

“There is encouraging news in this study, but we still have much more work to do to help people quit,” Tim McAfee, MD, MPH, Director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a news release. “We can bring down cigarette smoking rates much further, much faster, if strategies proven to work are put in place like funding tobacco control programs at the CDC-recommended levels, increasing prices of tobacco products, implementing and enforcing comprehensive smoke-free laws, and sustaining hard-hitting media campaigns.”