CDC Calls for Nationwide Anti-Smoking Plan

CDC Calls for Nationwide Anti-Smoking Plan

About 46 million Americans smoke, and close to one in every hundred, or 443,000, of those smokers die every year. A nationwide anti-smoking plan that imposes the same measures to prevent and curb smoking from state to state is the best way to persuade Americans to cut back, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. "From the numbers it's the leading preventable cause of death," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, told CNN. "As a doctor I have cared for people with cancer, with chronic lung disease, people who have to gasp for every breath, and I know that behind those numbers are people and lives." Smoking rates vary dramatically from state to state: More than one in four people smoke in West Virginia, the state with the highest rate at 26.5 percent, while Utah has the lowest rate of smoking at 9.3 percent. Some of the strategies that the CDC recommends for preventing smoking include raising tobacco prices, offering assistance to smokers who want to quit, passing smoke-free laws, and curbing tobacco advertising. "As an example of the success of these strategies, the CDC cites the state of California, which has one of the oldest comprehensive tobacco control programs," CNN reported. "California cut adult smoking rates from 22.7 percent in 1988 to 13.3 percent in 2006. That reduction in smoking accelerated the decline of heart disease deaths and lung cancer incidence in California, compared with the rest of the country."