Even though they know they shouldn't, one in five adults in the U.S continues to smoke cigarettes. Additionally, four in 10 nonsmokers were exposed to cigarette smoke during 2007-2008, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among children between the ages of three and 11 years old, 54 percent were exposed to secondhand smoke. Nearly all (98 percent) children who live with a smoker are exposed and have measurable levels of toxic chemicals from cigarette smoke.
Smoking rate steady
According to the report, the number of adult smokers dropped between 2000 and 2005, but smoking has remained at about 20-21 percent since 2005. In 2009, more men (nearly 24 percent) than women (about 18 percent) smoked and about 31 percent of those living below poverty level smoked. Fewer than six percent of adults with a graduate degree smoke compared with more than 25 percent of adults with no high school diploma.
Further, nearly 90 million non-smoking Americans are exposed to secondhand smoke and have measurable levels of toxic chemicals from cigarette smoke. Black non-smokers are one-third more likely than white smokers, and twice as likely as Mexican-American smokers, to have measurable exposure to tobacco.
"Smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in this country," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "But progress is possible. Strong state laws that protect nonsmokers from secondhand 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."
On the decline
In 2009, smoking among adults was lowest in Utah, followed by California. The Golden State has had a long-running comprehensive tobacco control program. Adult smoking in California declined by about 40 percent during 1998-2006, and as a result lung cancer in California has been declining four times faster than in the rest of the nation.
Maine, New York, and Washington have seen 45-60 percent reductions in youth smoking with sustained statewide efforts. If each state supported comprehensive tobacco control programs for five years with CDC recommended levels of funding, an estimated five million fewer people would smoke, resulting in prevention of premature tobacco-related deaths.
Kicking the habit
The federal government is stepping up its efforts to reduce tobacco use in order to achieve the tobacco use targets in Healthy People 2010 and Healthy People 2020. The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products and has provided new opportunities to reduce tobacco use.
In addition, the Communities Putting Prevention to Work program provides guidance and funding for states and communities to change policies to prevent tobacco use and protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke. The latter is especially important, according to CDC, given that more than half of young children are exposed to secondhand smoke. Children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to smoke themselves, but kids who grow up in communities with comprehensive smoke-free laws are much less likely to become smokers.
Among local initiatives is a proposed ban by New York City on smoking in parks and at beaches. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids praises Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner, for "their strong leadership in the fight against tobacco use."Smoking causes cancers of the lung, mouth, stomach, pancreas, kidney, colon, cervix, bladder and leukemia, as well as heart attacks, stroke, blindness, pneumonia, emphysema and other lung diseases, and many other health problems.
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes sudden infant death syndrome and low birth weight, acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, exacerbated asthma, respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung function in children. It also causes heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults.
