The report eventually led to warnings on cigarette packages, advertising restrictions and health education programs that have helped reduce the smoking prevalence rate among adults from 42.4% in 1965 to 20.9%, or 44.5 million people, in 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
The drop in smoking has been accompanied by a decline in cancer rates, although until recently, that decline has been overwhelmed by the growth in population. But the American Cancer Society reported in February the first decline in the absolute number of cancer deaths since 1930. The decline was small -- a drop of only 369 out of about 557,000 in 2003 -- but the results were attributed in large part to the smoking decreases.
Between 1988 and 2002, the report said, the percentage of adult nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke has been halved to about 43%. That exposure was determined by measuring blood levels of a key nicotine byproduct called cotinine.
Even among those exposed, the median level of cotinine has dropped about 70%. About 20% of children have been exposed to secondhand smoke at home, and their cotinine levels are twice those in adults.
The report is simply a compilation of research conducted in the last two decades. Nonetheless, experts hope it will galvanize public sentiment in much the same way that the 1964 report on smoking and health did, accelerating the momentum toward an extension of smoke-free laws to cover nonsmokers who are now unprotected.
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