COMPLACENCY has its cost. It has led some people to erroneously believe that smoking is fading as a public health danger. But a new report by the government dispels that perception by showing a small but disturbing uptick in the number of American smokers.
According to the most recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a little under 21 percent of Americans were cigarette smokers in 2008. That's up slightly from the year before when just 19.8 percent said they were smoking.
But it's also the first time since 1994 that experts have recorded an increase in adult smoking. "Clearly we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Why has what had been a steady decline in adult smoking suddenly stalled? Three reasons, say health officials.
Gains have been undermined by cuts in state tobacco control campaigns, as happened in Ohio. Tobacco companies have offered deep discounts to offset tax increases, and, since the 1998 state tobacco settlement, overall tobacco marketing has risen substantially.
Basically, say anti-smoking advocates, when you increase tobacco prices and fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs, smoking rates go down, and when prices stay flat and programs are cut, rates go up. The challenge, they say, is to resist the complacency that follows victory over tobacco use, as with indoor smoking bans, higher cigarette taxes, and Congress' recent decision to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.The CDC survey clearly indicates that much more needs to be done to reduce smoking. The cost to the nation in lives and medical expense is too steep to allow backsliding now with an unhealthy habit that remains the number one preventable cause of death in the United States.
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