The incidence of smoking in the US dropped to 13.9 percent last year, from 15.2 percent the year before, according to preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An Associated Press story quoted K. Michael Cummings of the tobacco research program at the Medical University of South Carolina as saying that there hadn’t been much change during the previous two years, but that it was clear there had been a general decline and that the new figures showed the decline was continuing.
“Everything is pointed in the right direction,” including falling cigarette sales and other indicators, Cummings said.
In the early 1960s, 42 percent of US adults smoked. At the turn of the millennium, the smoking incidence was about 23 percent.
The story quoted ‘experts’ as saying that anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes and smoking bans were combining to bring down adult smoking rates.
The launch of electronic cigarettes and their growing popularity was said to have ‘likely played a role’ in the decline.
Meanwhile, teenagers too are shunning cigarettes, with figures out last week showing that smoking among high-school students down to nine percent. About 13 percent of high-school students use electronic cigarettes, while the figure for adult use of these devices in 2016 was three percent.
Smoking in rapid decline
