healthy living
Smoking in the U.S. is at an all time low
Fewer Americans are smoking than ever before, Time reported Tuesday. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics put the number of adult smokers in the year 2017 at about 14 percent of the population, over 30 million people nationwide. The figure was around 16 percent in 2016, and 20 percent back in 2007.
This trend points to "a general decline" in the smoking population, NBC News reported. "Everything is pointed in the right direction," said Dr. K. Michael Cummings, an addiction researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina, who also noted that sales of cigarettes have fallen in recent years.
But additional data shows that electronic cigarettes may account for some of the declining figures, Time explained. Recent data shows that about 3 percent of U.S. adults used e-cigarettes in 2016. Although e-cigarettes don't contain the same harmful byproducts as cigarettes, the long-term effects of vaping aren't well-known.
Read more about the CDC data at Time.