Recent Decline in Smokers in U.S. and the Benefits of Quiting
 
 
The health benefits of smoking cessation (quitting) are immediate and substantial. Almost immediately, a person's circulation begins to improve and the level of carbon monoxide in the blood begins to decline. (Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas found in cigarette smoke, reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen.) A person's pulse rate and blood pressure, which may be abnormally high while smoking, begin to return to normal. Within a few days of quitting, a person's sense of taste and smell return, and breathing becomes increasingly easier.		  
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  People who quit smoking live longer than those who continue to smoke. After 10 to 15 years, a previous tobacco user's risk of premature death approaches that of a person who has never smoked. About 10 years after quitting, an ex-smoker's risk of dying from lung cancer is 30 percent to 50 percent less than the risk for those who continue to smoke. Quitting also reduces the risk of other smoking-related diseases, including heart disease and chronic lung disease.  
     
  The popularity of tobacco use has steadily declined in recent years as adult use continues to decrease significantly each year. States and localities are continuing to enact smoke free laws and ordinances which makes the practice even less socially acceptable. There has been a very significant recent decrease in the percentage of youth who take up the habit. There is even some evidence that the U.S. tobacco industry is beginning to abandon its efforts to oppose legislative restraints on smoking and even engage in some effort to discourage smoking. In a recent Senate vote, most Republicans joined Democrats in approving an expanded role for the Food and Drug Administration in tobacco control in exchange for a buyout of tobacco farmers.  
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  The number of U.S. adults who smoke continues to decline. Using data from the 2003 National Health Interview Survey, which surveyed 30,852 adults, researchers estimate that 45 million adult Americans are smokers. That's 21.6 percent of the adult population.  
     
  The good news is this marks a decline from 22.5 percent in 2002 and 22.8 percent in 2001. In addition, the 46 million adults who have quit smoking now outnumber the people who continue to smoke. This is the second year in a row this has occurred, the researchers said.  
     
  -Nick Garcia
www.comcuts.com

  
     
  Resources
health.msn.com
www.newsbatch.com
www.cancer.gov
cis.nci.nih.gov
  
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