Though fewer Americans smoke, cost in treating related health issues still great

ATLANTA Fewer U.S. adults smoke, but cigarette smoking continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on society, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.

“The good news, we continue to see fewer people smoking,” said Janet Collins, director of CDC?s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. “The bad news is we need more people to quit. Quitting smoking is the most important step smokers can take to improve their health and protect the health of nonsmoking family members. Smokers should be aware that there are treatments and services available to help them quit now more than ever before. Smokers can more than double their likelihood of successfully quitting by using medications and telephone counseling.”

An estimated 19.8 percent of U.S. adults (43.4 million people), were current smokers in 2007, down from 20.8 percent in 2006, according to a study in CDC?s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, released in advance of the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 20. However, based on the current rate of decline, it is unlikely that the national health objective of reducing the prevalence of adult cigarette smoking to 12 percent or lower will be met by 2010.

Smoking causes at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths, including more than 80 percent of lung cancer deaths, and 80 percent of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Smoking is responsible for early cardiovascular disease and death.

Nov. 20 marks the American Cancer Society?s 32nd Great American Smokeout. The event encourages smokers to quit for at least one day in the hope that this might help them to stop using tobacco permanently.

“If we want to see far more people quit smoking, we need expanded access to stop-smoking programs, continued progress in eliminating secondhand smoke exposure and ongoing investment in programs that work,” Matthew McKenna, director of CDC?s Office on Smoking and Health said. “If, starting in 2009, all states were to fully implement tobacco control programs at CDC-recommended levels of investment, an estimated five million fewer people in this country would smoke within five years, and hundreds of thousands of premature tobacco-related deaths would be prevented each year.”