Jump to full article: Buffalo (NY) News, 2009-06-12
Author: Henry L. Davis NEWS MEDICAL REPORTER
Intro: Major progress has been made in reducing cigarette smoking in the United States, but the success is uneven across the states and below national goals, according to a new report.
The report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was prepared by researchers in Buffalo and released this week at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Phoenix.
"The data show that tobacco control programs save lives but that we need to diffuse them more across the country," said Gary Giovino, chairman of the department of human behavior at the University at Buffalo and principal investigator on the project. . . .
In New York State, the prevalance of smoking among adults remains slightly below the national average. One statistic for the state stands out: Fewer than 14 percent of New York high school students report that they smoke, compared with 20 percent in the United States.
Despite the falling rates of smoking among adults, the report concluded that tobacco use remains far above the goal of the national Healthy People 2010 initiative to reduce prevalence to 12 percent by the end of the decade.
"We need interventions that are relevant to the people who are still smoking," said Giovino.
He and the other authors of "Cigarette Smoking Prevalence and Policies in the 50 States: An Era of Change," concluded that obstacles stand in the way of further reductions in tobacco use.
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