The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have updated their Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), their annual survey to gauge health and behaviors of American adults.
The CDC has been collecting this data since 1995 and numerous public health groups including Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) rely on the annual survey to determine the number of smokers in a given state.
The great news this year is that smoking levels among adults are at their lowest levels ever. In 2020, just more than 15 percent of adults were considered current smokers. This is a 37.1 decrease from 1995 when 22.7 percent of American adults smoked. There’s even better news. Among young adults aged between 18 and 24 years, smoking rates have plummeted. In 2020, a record low 9.6 percent of current adult smokers were aged 18 to 24 years old. This is a 59.5 percent decrease from 1995 when 23.7 percent of current smokers were considered young adults.
But what is most interesting is how significantly these rates have dropped since the introduction of e-cigarettes into the U.S. marketplace.
Lindsey Stroud – Townhall – 2021-09-22.
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