State

Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs—2014 – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking and Health. This guide provides states with new programmatic and funding recommendations to effectively plan and implement comprehensive, sustainable, and accountable tobacco prevention and control programs. This new document draws upon best practices, as informed by state experiences in tobacco control program implementation, new scientific evidence, and changes in the tobacco control landscape since the Best Practices guide’s 2007 release.

Prevention Status Reports, 2013 – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support. The Prevention Status Reports outline the status of key policies and practices that can help prevent or reduce public health problems. The PSRs on tobacco feature policies to prevent or reduce smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke in each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Click here to read a press release from the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA).

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National

The health consequences of smoking—50 years of progress: A report of the Surgeon General, 2014 – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 32nd tobacco-related Surgeon General’s report highlights fifty years of progress in tobacco control and prevention, presents new data on the health consequences of smoking, and discusses actions that can potentially end the smoking epidemic in the United States. The death and disease toll of smoking, current statistics on smoking, tobacco control strategies, and other scientific findings are presented in this comprehensive report. The report estimates that smoking causes 480,000 premature deaths, an increase from the prior estimate of 443,000 deaths, which represents about one of every five deaths in the United States. Click here to read the press release from the Department of Health and Human Services and click here to read the press release from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Click here to read more and view an interactive infographic from USA Today. Related: Leading health groups call for bold action to end the tobacco epidemic in the United States – Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In anticipation of the Surgeon General’s report, seven leading public health groups issued a joint statement calling for a new national commitment to ending the tobacco epidemic, outlining bold new goals for reducing smoking rates and protecting all Americans from secondhand smoke.

Current cigarette smoking among adults — United States, 2005–2012 – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest release on adult smoking prevalence reported a smoking rate of 18.1% for all American adults, a statistically significant drop from 20.9% in 2005. Data are presented by gender, age group, race/ethnicity, education, poverty status, U.S. Census region, and disability/limitation, and smoking disparities in these groups are similar to those observed in 2005.

Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer, 1975-2010, featuring prevalence of comorbidity and impact on survival among persons with lung, colorectal, breast, or prostate cancer – Cancer. Between 2001 and 2010, a 2.0% average annual decline in lung and bronchus cancer death rate was observed in men, with a 0.9% average annual decline in women, accounting for 29.3% of the reduction of cancer deaths that occurred during that time in the United States. Reduced prevalence in cigarette smoking is hypothesized to be the reason for the substantial lung cancer death reduction as well as the gender disparity observed in the annual reduction rates. Click here to read more from the National Cancer Institute.

Lung cancer incidence trends among men and women — United States, 2005–2009 – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Data on new cases of invasive lung cancer from 2005-2009 obtained from population-based cancer registries indicate that 569,366 cases of invasive lung cancer were reported in men and 485,027 cases were reported in women over that time period in the United States. In adults over 35 years old, lung cancer incidence decreased in men with annual percentage change of -2.6% in men and -1.1% in women. Researchers commented that continued support of population-based tobacco prevention and control strategies will further decrease lung cancer rates in the United States. To read a press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, click here.

"State of Tobacco Control" report – American Lung Association. The 12th annual State of Tobacco Control report focuses on the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health and the need to renew the nation’s commitment to fighting tobacco-caused death and disease. Key findings include that state governments continue to not put in place the key policies necessary to help end the tobacco epidemic, and that the federal government’s grades improved slightly from a poor performance last year.

Fewer Americans see cigarette smoking as a major public health problem – Pew Research Center. About half of Americans, 53%, see cigarette smoking as an extremely or very serious public health problem, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in November 2013. The public now sees smoking as less of a problem than a number of other public health issues like cancer and obesity, and less of a problem than it did in 2004 when 72% rated it as serious in an ABC News/Time poll.

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International

Smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption in 187 countries, 1980-2012 – JAMA. Using nationally representative tobacco use data from 187 countries, researchers found that the prevalence of daily smoking in those aged fifteen or older decreased from 41.2% to 31.1% in men and from 10.6% to 6.2% for women between 1980 and 2012. However, the total number of smokers in those countries increased during that time period because of population increases. The authors concluded that intensified tobacco control measures are needed, as tobacco remains a threat to the health of the world’s population.

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