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U.S. smoking rate is under 20 per cent for first time 

The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 per cent for the first time on record but cigarettes still kill almost half a million people a year, health officials said Thursday.

About 19.8 per cent of U.S. adults - 43.4 million people - were smokers in 2007. That was a percentage point below the 2006 figure and followed three years of little progress, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.

Smoking and secondhand smoke kill 443,000 people annually from cancer, lung disease, heart disease and other causes, the CDC said. Half of all long-term smokers, especially those who start as teens, die prematurely, many in middle age.

And smoking burns a large hole in the economy. Including direct health care expenditures ($96 billion) and productivity losses ($97 billion), the economic burden of smoking on the United States hit $193 billion per year, the CDC said.

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