The number of adults smoking 10 or more cigarettes a day has declined slightly, but more adults now smoke one to nine cigarettes daily, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study estimated national and adult smoking prevalence by examining the data from the 2005 to 2010 National Health Interview Surveys and the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey. It turns out that, in 2010, 19.3 percent of U.S. adults were current cigarette smokers, as opposed to the 20.9 percent reported in 2005. Within this group of regular smokers, the number who lit up fewer than 10 times a day had increased during this time period from 16.4 to 21.8 percent. But notably, the number of smokers who had 30 or more cigarettes a day decreased, from 12.7 to 8.3 percent.
While, of course, we d like to see a more accelerated rate of decline, this is still good news, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. The decrease represents three million fewer smokers in the U.S. Yet he also notes that, while the author of the CDC study recommends clinical cessation interventions alongside the typical population-based prevention tactics, such approaches are not effective among addicted smokers.
Given the poor success rate of clinical cessation intervention, as well as the fact that the trend of smokers who are cutting back on their cigarette consumption coincides with increased sales of smokeless tobacco, he says, a better strategy for helping those who are most addicted would be to inform them of the latter option. Those who blindly oppose smokeless tobacco to help smokers quit are failing to acknowledge the 45 million smokers who can t quit without more help.
ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan agrees. Different strategies are required to reach this core group of the most addicted smokers, she says.