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U.S. smoking rates drop to new low

Just over 15 percent of Americans continue to light up.

By Stephen Feller

ATLANTA, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The number of people in the United States who smoke has dropped to a new low -- just over 15 percent -- as national efforts to reduce that number appear to be working, according to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts said smoke-free laws, strong anti-smoking marketing campaigns, and higher taxes have been successfully nudging smokers away from their addiction to lighting up.

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"I hear from smokers all the time, 'When I can't smoke here, I can't smoke there, when people see me smoke they look at me like I'm a pariah -- it makes me want to not smoke anymore,'" Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-LIJ Health System, told HealthDay.

The CDC's National Health Interview Survey, conducted between January and March 2015, found that 15.2 percent of adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. That, according to the report, continues a decline over the last few years from 18 percent in 2013 and 17 percent in 2014. That rate is a monumental decline since 1962, when 42 percent of Americans reported they were smokers.

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More younger people smoke than older people. The study showed that 17 percent of people 18 to 44 smoke, 16.9 percent of those between 45 and 64 smoke, and just 7.5 percent of adults older than 65 smoke. Men continue to smoke more than women, as 17.4 percent of men smoke compared to 13 percent of women.

Declines in the number of smokers in the country stalled around 20 percent in the mid-2000s as new strategies to curb smoking were concocted, including particularly brutal television advertisements that many smokers find difficult to watch.

"Smokers find them so painful to watch that they keep changing the channel, but these ads are running everywhere," Folan said.

Increases in tobacco taxes and legislative efforts to outlaw smoking in public places, both inside and outside of buildings, have also had a significant effect on reducing smoking because it's become more difficult, Folan said.

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