BY GINGER ROUGH
The Arizona Republic
The number of Arizonans who smoke is dropping sharply, and experts are attributing the decline to new laws that limit the use of tobacco and the higher cost of cigarettes.
A new federal study shows that about 170,000 of the state’s adult residents kicked their smoking habit from 2007 to 2008; the number of active smokers in Arizona – those who smoke some days or every day – fell to 15.9 percent, down from 19.8 percent in 2007. That’s a nearly 20 percent decrease, and medical experts call it “unprecedented.”
The share of people who smoke every day fell to 10.7 percent from 13.6 percent.
“I think – I hope – that this trend will continue,” said Bill Pfeifer, president and chief executive of the American Lung Association of Arizona. “There’s been a change in the environment in Arizona.”
Arizona’s decrease in active smokers means the state now ranks far below the national average of 18.3 percent.
Among states, Arizona had the seventh-lowest rate in the nation in 2008 in terms of smoking prevalence, down from the 25th-lowest rate a year earlier. Utah had the lowest rate last year; West Virginia had the highest.
The data comes from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual survey of the nation’s health.
The report, which is the largest of its kind, draws its information from monthly telephone interviews. It has been conducted every year since 1984.
Pfeifer, who is also the chairman of Arizona’s Tobacco Revenue, Use Spending and Tracking Commission, attributed the decrease in smoking to various factors, including greater awareness of health risks and the steady increase in taxes on tobacco. The latest went into effect April 1. A pack of premium cigarettes purchased in Arizona now costs roughly $7.50 to $8, officials said. Of that, $2 is state taxes and $1.01 is federal taxes.
Will Humble, interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, also believes the large one-year drop is due in part to Smoke Free Arizona, legislation that banned smoking in most public places, including restaurants and bars.
The law went into effect in May 2007 and could have helped “social smokers,” those who tend to smoke in groups and public places, to kick their habit, Humble said.
“Those people are included in the survey (data),” he said. “And that’s a pretty easy group to peel off, if you eliminate the social aspect to their habit.”
Humble said preliminary data for 2009, which has not yet been released, shows the downward trend continuing.
The surveys put current smoking prevalence in the state at about 15.3 percent, he said.
