New CDC Survey Shows Adult Smoking Rates Continue to Decline Slowly, Demonstrating Need to Do More to Discourage Tobacco Use and Help
Smokers Quit

The annual survey of adult smoking rates released in May 2005 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that adult smoking in the United States is declining, but not at the rate needed to achieve the U.S. Surgeon General's national goal of reducing adult smoking to 12 percent or less by 2010. The adult smoking rate declined from 22.5 percent in 2002 to 21.6 percent in 2003, the most recent year for which data has been collected, according to the annual National Health Interview Survey. This survey is published in the May 27th issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).