The Great American Smokeout will be held on November 21st this year. The event, which is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, encourages smokers to quit the habit, even if only for the day. To bring the number of smokers down even further, state and local laws have targeted tobacco to make smoking less appealing and less accessible.
Number of Adult Smokers Decreasing, But Still High
In its 37th year, the Great American Smokeout is held on the third Thursday in November. Tobacco smokers across the country are given support to quit on that day or to make a plan to quit in the near future.
The reason is clear: smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that cigarette smoking is responsible for one in five deaths (over 440,000 deaths per year), and that smokers die ten years sooner than nonsmokers. And for every person who dies from cigarettes smoking, another 20 have a smoking-related illness.
In the U.S., the number of smokers has been declining for decades. In 1965, over 40% of adults smoked, and now that number is around 20%, which translates to approximately 45 million smokers across the country. Public health officials want that number to drop even more.
New York Leads the Pack in Quitters
Along with efforts like the Great American Smokeout, many new government laws and regulations have been introduced to curb smoking. New York City will likely raise the legal age for tobacco purchase from 18 to 21. The bill nicknamed “Tobacco 21” was approved and now waits for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has famously taken great strides to make New York healthier, to sign it into law. People who smoke are most likely to start smoking before the age of 21, so the advocates of the bill, which has received a mixed reception, are hopeful that it will save many lives.
The minimum age to purchase tobacco is 18 or 19 in most places in the U.S., but is 21 in some municipalities in Massachusetts. If Tobacco 21 passes, New York City will be the largest place where the legal age of purchase is 21.
New York also leads the country in excise taxes on cigarettes. Many states have increased excise taxes on cigarettes in part to reduce smoking rates among adults and to prevent kids from picking up the habit. New York State imposes an excise tax of $4.35 per pack, and New York City adds another $1.50, bringing the total to around $12 per pack of cigarettes. The strategy seems to have worked: smoking decreased in New York from 22% in 2002 to 14% as of last year.
Smoking Bans: Indoors and Outdoors
It’s hard to remember, but it wasn’t too long ago that smoking was acceptable practically everywhere, including bars, restaurants, and the workplace. For example, it wasn’t until 1998 that the Federal Aviation Administration officially banned smoking on domestic airlines.
But smoking bans have become more and more common in the past couple decades. While there is no federal ban on smoking of any kind, many states and municipalities have enacted smoking bans regarding smoking indoors at public places, like theatres, restaurants, and bars. It’s widely accepted that secondhand smoke is harmful indoors, but it has not conclusively been shown that secondhand smoke outdoors is harmful. Still, bans on smoking outdoors – at public parks, beaches, colleges, and other locations – have almost doubled in five years to 2,600 across the country.
Get Support You Need to Quit
Smokers interested in quitting can get more information about the Great American Smokeout and on quitting from the American Cancer Society.
