Washington, November 16: America has seen a dip in the number of current smokers. According to health officials 43.3 million people, or a shade under one-fifth of the population were smokers in 2007. The figure stood at 20.8 percent in 2006.
In November 2000, America had set a goal 12 percent adult-smoking rate as a part of the Healthy People 2010 project. That goal still remains a distant dream.
Prior to this, the smoking rate practically remained unchanged. It was 20.9 percent in 2004, 20.9 percent in 2005 and 20.8 percent in 2006. Since it was the first time that the adult-smoking rate had come below the 20 percent threshold, the anti-smoking groups had reasons to cheer.
Dr. Matthew McKenna, the director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlighted the steps to be taken to curb the smoking rate further. He said, "If we want to see far more people quit smoking, we need expanded access to stop-smoking programs, continued progress in eliminating secondhand smoke exposure and ongoing investment in programs that work."
A disturbing trend revealed in the report was that the percentage of everyday smokers who made an attempt to give up smoking dropped to 40 percent in 2007, down from 47 percent in 1993. The report also revealed that people aged between 18 and 24 were more likely to quit smoking than their older counterparts.
Male smokers (22 percent) outnumbered the female smokers (17.4 percent). The number of white adult smokers was 21.4 percent vis-à-vis 19.8 percent black smokers.
McKenna opined that, "If, starting in 2009, all states were to fully implement tobacco-control programs at CDC-recommended levels of investment, an estimated 5 million fewer people in this country would smoke within five years, and hundreds of thousands of premature tobacco-related deaths would be prevented each year."
Relinquishing smoking is the most vital step smokers can take to perk up their own health and safeguard the health of non-smoking family members.
