Rate rose slightly in 2008 amid discount pricing and curbs on cessation campaigns
Jump to full article: Associated Press (AP), 2009-11-17
Author: Mike Stobbe
Intro: Cigarette smoking rose slightly in 2008 for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent.
A little under 21 percent of Americans were current cigarette smokers, according to a 2008 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up slightly from the year before, when 19.8 percent said they were smoking. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts noted.
The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising. But they are unhappy.
"Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.
There's a general perception that smoking is a dying public health danger. Feeding that perception are indoor smoking laws, higher cigarette taxes and Congress's recent decision to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.
But health officials believe gains have been undermined by cuts in state tobacco control campaigns. Also, the tobacco industry has been discounting cigarettes to offset tax increases and keep smokes affordable, Willmore said, citing tobacco industry sales data.
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