A “pack a day” habit is becoming increasingly rare as a smaller percentage of Americans are considered ‘heavy smokers’ now than in 1965. While researchers have known that smoking rates have declined over the past few decades, little research has been done on the number of cigarettes smoked by each person.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego recently analyzed surveys conducted since 1965 to track rates of heavy and moderate smoking. According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, even those who still smoke have cut back.
More than half of all smokers regularly smoked more than 20 cigarettes (or one pack) per day in the 1960s. In 1964, the first Surgeon General’s warning linked smoking to cancer. This report led to steady decline in smoking rates over the next several decades as people learned of the health consequences tied to smoking.
The researchers looked at the number of people who reported smoking at least a pack (20 cigarettes) per day. 45 years after the first Surgeon General’s warning, this percentage had declined to 40 percent of U.S. smokers consuming at least 20 cigarettes each day. In California, which has long led the way in anti-smoking efforts, only 23 percent of smokers reported a pack-a-day habit. Researchers attribute this to California’s efforts to tax cigarettes starting in 1968. California was also among the first states to ban smoking in the workplace.
Even moderate smoking (defined as about 10 cigarettes per day) has declined across the nation. Lead study author John P. Pierce, a professor at the UCSD School of Medicine, says it’s doubtful young people of today will ever reach the smoking rates of the generations before them. He estimates that “Fewer than 20 percent of young residents in the rest of the nation will ever reach even half a pack per day.”
Pierce speculated on one reason for the nationwide decline in smoking: “The major decline is in the young people never [becoming smokers] in the first place. It’s much easier to quit when you don’t have to.”
While these statistics are promising, we can’t breathe easy yet. Other studies have shown that the overall rate of smoking – rather than just heavy smoking – may have hit a plateau in recent years.
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