Smoking declines in the U.S.
It looks like the rate of smoking has highly decreased among adults in the U.S. in the last decades. Statistics showed that smoking has dropped off 15 percent in 2015. However, this rate fell to 13 percent after 17 percent of adults confessed that they had recently smoked.
Until now, smoking used to fall 1 percent each year. According to Brian King of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking rate fell 1.5 percent in 1992-1993. Over 480,000 people die every year in the U.S. because of smoking.
Plus, it has not been established yet if smoking will decrease even more in the following years. Around 50 years ago, approximately 42 percent of U.S. adults were addicted to smoking. However, its rate has started to decline continuously, together with a higher public understanding that smoking leads to many lethal health problems such as heart disease and cancer.
Smoking bans, cigarette taxes, and advertising campaigns have also played a crucial role in educating people. Nevertheless, another issue appeared in the form of electronic cigarettes which became popular very fast.
One of the reasons why they were accepted among customers was that they were thought to help smokers quit. But that is not true, as it was established a high increase of e-cigs especially among younger generations.
Plus, scientists have proved that these electronic devices are just a different way of making people addicted to nicotine. Health officials and parents are concerned about the future of children and teenagers who have already became addicted to nicotine.
According to Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, smoking cessation specialist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, there is a high risk that future generations will become addicted to nicotine starting from ages of 18 to 20 years old.
However, the Food and Drug Administration has already taken measures to tackle this issue by introducing new laws that will ban the sale of nicotine gels, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco and e-cigarettes to young people under 21 years old.
Hopefully, people will become more aware of this problem and smoking will continue to drop off in the following years as well. All in all, education is the best method of prevention.
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