Tobacco.org

Tax disincentive helps smokers quit 

The results are in. Since Arizona voters decided in 2006 to tax cigarettes much more heavily and to ban smoking in most indoor public spaces, some 170,000 Arizonans have quit smoking.

The number of adult smokers in Arizona dropped by nearly 20 percent since 2007, the sharpest decline in the nation. The number of Arizonans 18 and older who smoke dropped to 16 percent.

All this from a study released Wednesday by the American Lung Association of Arizona, according to Capitol Media Services.

The group's president, Bill Pfeifer, told Capitol Media that the major reason for the decline in smoking was that voters in 2006 agreed to impose some of the toughest anti-smoking measures in the nation.

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