Adult Smoking Rate Shows Record Drop

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | April 21, 2005 | James P. Sweeney

[Scenic Sounds]

SACRAMENTO – California's adult smoking rate has fallen to a historic low as young adults – the first generation to grow up with the state's aggressive anti-tobacco campaign – posted their biggest decline in nearly a decade, health officials reported yesterday.

Only 15.4 percent of California adults still smoke, according to a survey of 8,000 people conducted throughout 2004. That figure, down from 16.2 percent the year before, represents nearly 4 million smokers, but 70 percent of those want to quit, the survey found.

Public health advocates were encouraged by a nearly four-point drop – from 22.2 percent to 18.3 percent – in the smoking rate among 18-to 24-year-olds, a significant slice of the population that still has the highest level of tobacco use.

The tobacco industry and the state's anti-smoking campaign both have targeted young adults, whose smoking prevalence had fluctuated in the low 20 percent range since 1995.

"The most hopeful sign is it appears the 18-to 24-year-old rate has stabilized and is now starting to decline," said Colleen Stevens, a veteran administrator of the state's tobacco control program.

"These kids are growing up in a world where smoking is not appropriate, it's not fashionable," Stevens said. "They know the dangers and they look at people who smoke and say, 'What's wrong with you?' "

California has spent millions over the past 15 years on a provocative advertising assault on the dangers of tobacco use. The money has been generated by a 1988 ballot measure that added 25 cents to the tax on each pack of cigarettes.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of a landmark California law that banned smoking in enclosed workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

Since 1988, when voters passed the tobacco tax, California's adult smoking rate has fallen over 32 percent, from 22.8 percent to 15.4 percent.

The trend, said Dr. Richard Jackson, the state's public health officer, "is having a profound effect on the health of Californians" with rates of tobacco-related cancers and heart disease well below national levels.

California's adult smoking rate is second lowest only to Utah's, which recently dipped below 12 percent. Nationally, an estimated 22.5 percent of adults, or 46 million people, smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says cigarette smoking is the nation's leading preventable cause of death.

Stevens said there is still room for improvement in California, particularly among lower-income groups.

The tobacco industry remains a political power in the state Capitol. In recent years, it has helped block proposals to outlaw smoking until age 21, on state beaches and in cars carrying small children.

But industry leader Philip Morris USA has acknowledged the perils of tobacco use, encouraged smokers to quit and set up an informational resource to help those who want to give up cigarettes.

"We agree with the public health community that to reduce the health effects of smoking, the best thing to do is to quit," said Jennifer Golisch, a Philip Morris spokeswoman.

[Just another Joe]

"They know the dangers and they look at people who smoke and say, 'What's wrong with you?' "

NO, they don't know the dangers. They know what they've been told by anti-smoker organizations, and the government that's in cahoots with them.
And if they want to look at me and ask that question............"I'm crazy as a loon and I've got a BIG knife. What's it to you?"

[TAdams8591]

It shows peer pressure works.

Funny how when you approach the same people with similar ideas to lower the number of teens engaging in sex, they cry it can't be done.