Every day millions of people light up and have a cigarette, some people smoke a pack per day. Indeed, cigarettes play a huge role in the everyday life for many people and it is no wonder considering the billions of dollars that go into advertising, as well as people’s lack of education, for whatever reason, regarding the dangers of smoking. Cigarettes are highly addictive and have been proven to cause ailments such as lung cancer and heart disease, as well as many other problems. Science and modern medicine together have shown the world the dangerous consequences of smoking cigarettes; this has cut the number of smokers severely.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report showing fewer adults are smoking cigarettes in the United States. An estimated 19.3 percent of adults smoked in 2010, down from 20.9 percent in 2005, according to the CDC. A 1.6 percent drop does not seem like a lot, but according to CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden the decline means there are three million fewer smokers in 2010 than five years ago, Reuters reports. Three million people is definitely a significant amount, showing that anti-smoking campaigns and the effort of primary physicians to convince their patients to quit have been effective.

• 21.8 percent of smokers had fewer than 10 cigarettes daily in 2010, up from 16.4 percent five years ago.
• 8.3 percent of smokers said they smoked more than 30 cigarettes a day in 2010, down from 12.7 percent in 2005.

The government, according to the CDC, had a goal to reduce adult smoking to 12.7 percent by the year 2020. Unfortunately, that goal does not seem like a reality considering the trends; which if they continue in the same direction the number of adult smokers in 2020 should be around 17 percent.

“States that invest more fully in comprehensive tobacco control programs have seen larger declines in cigarette sales than the United States as a whole, and smoking prevalence among adults and youths has declined faster as spending for tobacco control programs has increased,” the report concludes.