Heartening news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Pun intended.
Axios reports on new CDC data showing that just 14 percent of US adults said that they have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days - the lowest number in history.
“The big picture,” Axios writes, is that “smoking’s decline has been slow and steady — as 67% of American adults smoked in 1965 and just 15.5% did so last year.”
The numbers are not quite as encouraging among young people: “About 10% of young adults aged 18 to 24 smoked cigarettes in 2017, down from 13% in 2016.” And there remains a problem with the numbers, because “there is no way to tell if the decline in cigarette use correlates to the increase in e-cigarette use, even when tobacco companies tout vapes are an alternative to smoking … 2.8% of Americans reported using e-cigarettes within the last 30 days, making them the third-most used tobacco product.” And, “about 47 million Americans are still using some type of tobacco product, like e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.”
But the numbers seem to be declining.
Pun intended.
Axios reports on new CDC data showing that just 14 percent of US adults said that they have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days - the lowest number in history.
“The big picture,” Axios writes, is that “smoking’s decline has been slow and steady — as 67% of American adults smoked in 1965 and just 15.5% did so last year.”
The numbers are not quite as encouraging among young people: “About 10% of young adults aged 18 to 24 smoked cigarettes in 2017, down from 13% in 2016.” And there remains a problem with the numbers, because “there is no way to tell if the decline in cigarette use correlates to the increase in e-cigarette use, even when tobacco companies tout vapes are an alternative to smoking … 2.8% of Americans reported using e-cigarettes within the last 30 days, making them the third-most used tobacco product.” And, “about 47 million Americans are still using some type of tobacco product, like e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.”
But the numbers seem to be declining.
- KC's View:
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Good. The numbers can’t go low enough, but this is a good start.
In related news, the New York Times reports that “the Food and Drug Administration plans to ban sales of most flavored e-cigarettes in retail stores and gas stations around the country, in an effort to reduce the popularity of vaping among young people. The agency also plans to require age-verification measures for online sales to try to ensure that minors are not able to buy the flavor pods.”
Also good.
