Smoking Rates Level Off After Steep Decline: "Bush administration AWOL regarding tobacco control."

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 8, 2007

The decades-long decline in smoking by Americans has stalled for three years, the first time smoking rates have leveled off for that long since the federal government began collecting statistics more than 40 years ago. After more than a decade of steep decline, smoking rates for high school children also have hit a plateau in the past few years and even increased a bit. Together, the data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today present a worrisome picture of the trends associated with smoking, especially because the trend had been positive for so long.

"Anytime we are not seeing a decline, it's a cause of real concern to us," said Corrine Husten, head of the epidemiology branch of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable disease we have, and we need to bring down the rates as quickly as we possibly can."

According to the CDC report, about 20.8 percent of American adults smoke -- with 80 percent (or 36.3 million people) smoking every day and the rest smoking some days. Adult smoking rates declined more than 15 percent from 1997 to 2004 but have remained static since.

Husten pointed to several likely reasons for the change in tobacco-use trends. Cigarette companies have been spending billions of dollars to offset state and other tax increases and "discount" their products, and the funding for several very successful state anti-smoking campaigns has been sharply decreased, she said.

Other anti-tobacco advocates said they think the Bush administration has not treated tobacco control as a priority and has not highlighted or promoted the issue. The smoking rates reflected that approach in part, they said. William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the administration has been "AWOL regarding tobacco control -- doing little or nothing." He called it "inexcusable that elected leaders have not done more given the overwhelming scientific evidence of what works to reduce tobacco use among both children and adults."...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/08/AR2007110801094.html?hpid=topnews

[kestrel91316]

1. This is because Bush and Cheney and friends all own lots of

tobacco company stock.

Move along now. Nothing to see here.

[truthisfreedom]

2. I've wondered why we haven't heard from Pickles on this subject...

Why doesn't she speak out on the evils of tobacco? WHERE IS THE CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION WITH REGARD TO OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE?

[NYVet]

3. I wasn't aware that the government had to force people to stop smoking.

Isn't is someone's free choice if they want to smoke or not?

[NekoChris]

6. Every time..

This comes up I feel a tug of war.

People want freedom to make their own choices. But at the same time smoking is NOT a healthy habit, it never was, it never will be.

The second half always wins. People need to STOP smoking. Period. If it has to be done through taxes that make cigarettes impossible to afford then so be it. Let only the rich and elite kill themselves with these cancer sticks. If it has to be put into law, let it be so. If it means putting people out of work, then do it. Why? Because as an entire species we will be better off if people stop filling the air with this crap.

So sure, outlaw it, tax it, ban it, shut them down. Do whatever it takes because I'm cynical, I don't ever see anyone having the courage to stand up and really shut these corporations down for the betterment of us all because of their power and influence. But every, little, step, helps.

[bjb]

12. Vehicles

People also need to stop inhaling automobile exhaust. Shouldn't we ban cars also??

[LanternWaste]

14. I don't think that the sole purpose of automobile exhaust...

I don't think that the sole purpose of automobile exhaust is pollution, it's merely a by-product.

[AZ Criminal JD]

17. A by-product which kills far more than smoking

I challenge you to breathe auto exhaust at 5 inches for 30 minutes and I will breathe cigarette smoke at the same time. Let's see who is alive at the end. People smoke because they like to smoke and it is enjoyable. Get a life.

[NekoChris]

32. Wow, that's stupid.

Yes because I want to suck on the end of a car for any reason. It's even stupider than sucking on the cigarette. I guess if the car exhaust gave you the same 'buzz' you get off cigarettes you could do that too. How about we do that? Start putting menthol into the gas for our cars so that way you smokers can just sit behind them and breathe in.

There is no defense for smoking. You do it because it's enjoyable? So are sports, video games, hitting yourself in the head with a frying pan, swimming, BDSM, playing with cats, and many other things. So why not do something less likely to blacken your lungs and risk health problems to those around you?

I vote the frying pan. Repeatedly.

[LanternWaste]

37. I smoke because I'm addicted to it, Not because I enjoy.

I smoke because I'm addicted to it, Not because I enjoy.

"Get a life"? very, very clever stuff! Hiring some scab writers for your posts? :eyes:

[ozu]

13. yeah

"If it has to be done through taxes that make cigarettes impossible to afford then so be it. Let only the rich and elite be allowed personal choice in regards to which legal activities they can partake."

That's how I read that statement. Personal freedoms aside, taxing cigarettes forces the government to marry itself to the health of the tobacco industry as it would then be in the government's best financial interests to keep its citizens using those dollar generating cancer products.

[NekoChris]

34. Way to skew the point

It's not like they're saying 'You can never play skeeball again because of our skeeball taxes', they're trying to curb people off something that is a /health risk to yourself and others/.

I really hate to get into the liberties and who has the right to do what but come on. You punish children for doing things that are bad for them. Maybe somebody needs to start getting punished to get this across. Smoking is BAD. FOR. YOU. It is /bad for those around you/.

The issue is smoking. The issue is people doing it and putting themselves at others at risk. The issue is telling people to stop doing stupid things to themselves.

If you keep your focus on that issue, and focus on improving the overall health of all Americans by getting them OFF smoking, then yes I fully approve of the government stepping in and taxing cigarettes to hell. It would help our healthcare system by reducing the number of people in there for smoking related illness, it would help our economy because now your money is going somewhere vastly more important than tobacco, IE: Anywhere else, and it would help you as a person because you would be healthier.

[Beerboy]

31. Very passionately stated. n/t.

[Psephos]

39. Translation: freedom is great, unless it means freedom to do something I don't like n/t

[pdefalla]

8. Govt. Forcing us to Quit?

The Government is spending 2 Trillion dollars to protect its citizens against the dangers of Al Queda in Iraq, why not spend a couple of million to protect its citizens against lung cancer?
Besides, the government is not "forcing you to stop smoking", it is just educating folks that there is a price to pay when you do smoke.
Interestingly enough, the government has decided that it SHOULD force you to stop smoking pot. You ok with that?

[NYVet]

27. Honestly, I am closer to Libertarians on the smoking issue.

I think that I saw a study that showed that pot and alcohol have related effects on the body in terms of reaction time and reflexes, so I don't think that you should do either and drive or handle dangerous machinery.

As for smoking, I believe that if people are aware of the possible effects and want to do it, that is up to them.
Just don't ask me to pay for your treatment 20 years down the line when you get lung cancer and COPD.

[Beerboy]

30. Yes, it's someone's free choice to smoke,

but w/ provisos... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3059079&mesg_id=3059079

[glowing]

4. I would say that the last 7 years have lead to a lot of people who

smoke, to continue and those who have quit to start again.. such stressful times we live in.

Also, it seems that so many young people are smoking these days. Like a re-surgence. Everytime I see somone teenish smoking, I tell them thru my own puffs... quit now, it is much easier, you have not become so habituated by the experience that it is so tought to quit now.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for your post, glowing. Interesting point about stress -- and wise advice for teens. nt

[glowing]

10. Wish I had listened to the adults back then... my gateway drug into

smoking was alcohol... I found that while being a social drinker, it helped the shot to settle much better while smoking a cigarette... should have left it for the bar time atmosphere and not for when I was sober.

[One_Life_To_Give]

7. No one dares show that ads that work

I am refering to the ones made by some young adults point out that;
1) Over 400,000 Americans Die Annually from smoking related causes
2) The tobacco companies need to find replacements for these 400,000+ to continue lining their pockets.
3) Show exec enticing kid so to help pay for new, (Yacht, Car, House)

[Kolesar]

11. There is this perky girl who narrates a commercial on my favorite alternative rock station

She iterates some commonly held misperceptions like that "most people our age smoke", and then she cites a poll that says most young Americans don't want to date smokers.

I like that last point.

[danhan]

9. No Guts

Our leaders say that smoking bans and anti smoking legislation are for everyone's health and of course "for the children!" Yet these "leaders" don't have the guts to propose making cigarettes illegal.

Hmmm...

So, are they more interested in health or the tax revenue generated?

I say, follow the money!

[ElboRuum]

15. Not sure that the cause is government.

Weird, I've seen cigarette taxes increase across the board numerous times. I've seen the passage of statutes in many communities which ban public smoking. I am getting a little irritated by those sanctimonious Truth.org PSAs. Now all of this has happened in the last 8 years.

Isn't it just more likely that 20.8 percent of American adults simply have no desire or intention to quit, and that everyone who's going to quit has done so already?

[onehandle]

16. Depression, stress, and lack of Republican action.

Times are terrible and nicotine is a calming narcotic. I'm not surprised.

Republicans killed everything Waxman was working on related to tobacco when Bush became pResident. They gave big get out of jail free cards to big tobacco, because corporate profits trumps health issues of the common man.

[AZ Criminal JD]

18. People have smoked under every President

Human existence has always been stressful and smoking helps with that. Stop being silly by making this a party issue.

[onehandle]

19. The Democrats were coming down hard on tobacco at the end of the last Clinton's term.

The Republicans put a end to that in a big way.

How should I see it?

[JerseygirlCT]

20. I cannot believe the number of teens I've seen smoking lately

HOW can they be so stupid as to start? Honestly.

You know that V8 commercial? That's what I want to do to each of them.

[danhan]

21. I wish someone would have

whopped me in the head like the V8 commercial when I started as a teenager. Went 25 years. Quit 2 years ago. Feel great!

[JerseygirlCT]

22. Congratulations!

It's just so much easier not to start, I think.

My dad needs to stop. Really needs to stop. But though he's struggled to cutting down, he simply cannot do it. He's got almost 60 years of smoking in his past now, and it's just too ingrained. Fortunately, he's still mostly healthy. But I'm seeing oxygen tanks in his future at this rate, you know?

So how a young person, who knows full well how dangerous it is, and has probably been told since birth about it, decides to go ahead anyway? Just stupid.

I'm very glad you're feeling better!

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

24. Duplicate

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

25. He's been smoking for 60 years and is still healthy ?

Maybe everyone should smoke.

[Mojorabbit]

26. A lot of it is genes

As a nurse I saw lots of people in their eighties who had been smoking their whole life sometimes unfiltered cigs and had no lung disease and people who never smoked with cancer. The rest fell in between. Luck of the draw.

[JerseygirlCT]

36. I worry about my mother, breathing all that second-hand stuff

I think you're right about the genes. He seems to be doing ok.

[JerseygirlCT]

35. Well, basically healthy

Diabetes, a lovely cough, but other than that, nothing that we know of, at any rate.

[JBoy]

23. Anytime you can get "Bush" and "AWOL"

into the same sentence, it's a good story.

[Zorra]

28. Another major victory for Bu*h, all republicans, and the tobacco lobbyists

that finance them.

Gotta hand it to 'em - those rascally republicans are great at diversifying when it comes to supporting the factors and means of spreading death and disease.

Anywhere a profit can be made on human misery, you'll find republicans working to keep the humans miserable.

[Beerboy]

29. Well, there's always this...

[gauguin57]

33. It's cuz Laura Bush is a "secret smoker" ... well, not secret, since the WH press corps knows ...

... but won't tell. We don't wanna take Laura's coffin nails away ... she might get grumpy, and then Georgie will be grumpy, and then Iraq and Iran will suddenly be smoldering piles of nuclear cinders.

[SoCalDem]

38. Maybe smokers love the "childrennnnn" enough to fund their health care

:rofl:..Maybe it's a sacred obligation :rofl: