CDC: U.S. smoking rate continues to inch downward

ATLANTA -- The smoking rate among U.S. adults continues to inch downward, with 20.9 percent of Americans describing themselves as regular puffers last year.

That is a decline from 21.6 percent in 2003 and 22.5 percent in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

The rate has fallen steadily since the late 1990s. The fall from 2002 to 2004 was the largest two-year drop since the late 1980s, public health advocates noted.

Increased cigarette taxes, workplace smoking bans and state-based prevention efforts are the main reasons for the decline, said Dr. Corinne Husten, acting director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.

At the same time, officials said it appears increasingly unlikely the nation will reach the public health goal of reducing the smoking rate to 12 percent by 2010.

"It is good news for our nation's health that adult smoking rates are declining again after stagnating during much of the 1990s," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington-based group. "But it is also clear that elected officials at all levels must do more to implement the scientifically proven measures that have produced these declines."

The results are based on a national household survey of 31,326 adults. People were defined as current smokers if they had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and said they still smoked on a daily or occasional basis.

Because the margin of error was plus or minus 0.6 percentage points, Husten said the difference between the 2004 and 2003 rates was not statistically significant, but the gap between the 2004 and 2002 rates clearly was.

The survey found smoking rates were highest among American Indians and Alaska Natives. They also were higher among men than women, higher among people living below the poverty level, and higher among people with no more than a high school degree than among those with graduate degrees.

The highest smoking prevalence was reported in Kentucky (27.6 percent), West Virginia (26.9 percent) and Oklahoma (26.1 percent). The lowest rates were in Utah (10.5 percent), California (14.8 percent) and Idaho (17.5 percent).

Earlier this year, the CDC reported that 21.7 percent of high school students were smokers in 2004, as were 8.4 percent of middle school students.