Smoking Habits In the US

• Most smokers would like to give up the habit but consider themselves addicted to cigarettes
• About half of young smokers get hooked on smoking, which increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, emphysema and death
• 26 percent of Americans said they used to smoke in the past
• 49 percent of Americans have never smoke
• Fifty-five percent of smokers said they smoked less than a pack of cigarettes a day
• 36 percent smoked a pack a day -- 20 cigarettes
• 8 percent reported smoking more than a pack a day
• The average smoker puffs on 14 cigarettes each day, according to the poll
• 21 percent of people in the US smoke vs. 25 percent in 1997 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication)
• 75 percent of smokers have made serious attempts to quit in the past, but had to make one or two serious attempts before finally quitting

Smoke-Free, the quit smoking book.

Speaking of habits. . .

• Smokers that ban together when trying to quit smoking find greater success. It seems that the social aspect makes quitting the new "addiction," according to a study by Dr. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School in Boston and Dr. James Fowler of the University of California. The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging (New England Journal of Medicine).

• Anti-smoking guru, Allen Carr, who has convinced millions of people to give up smoking, has died of lung cancer. Mr Carr, 72, used to go through 100 cigarettes a day, but stopped smoking 23 years ago. . . then he built a global empire on teaching people how to quit (25 million he claimed). His books have become best-sellers and he runs clinics around the world.

• Mentally ill people account for nearly 40 percent of all smokers, according to SANE Australia.

• Sleep and the Smoking Habit from a study of 87,000 people from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (CDC) * People who get under 6 hours of sleep smoke at a rate of 31 percent.
  * Smokers who got 9 or more hours of sleep smoked at a rate of 26 percent.
  * People who sleep 7 to 8 hours a day smoking rate was 18 percent.
  * For comparison, the overall US smoking rate is about 21 percent.
  * The study also found that obesity was a problem with too much or too little sleep.

• New way to arrest the smoking habit. 7 men were arrested for smoking in the Philippines for breaking the Republic Act 9211 Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. More to come around the world. . .

  
  

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© Copyright by Arthur A. Hawkins II. All rights reserved.