The national adult smoking rate has reached a historic low. But smoking cessation advocates say there is still more work to be done.
The report shows that about 35 million adult Americans were still smoking cigarettes in 2018. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey, says that translates to about 14 percent of adults.
That's down from just over 20 percent as recently as 2005.
The rate for North Carolina reached a historic low in 2017.
Dr. John Spangler is a professor of family medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health.
He tells the Winston-Salem Journal that the latest findings are “very encouraging and should be celebrated.”
But Spangler adds that the numbers don't tell the whole story. He says that other tobacco products such as cigars and cigarillos are as unhealthy as cigarettes.
And anti-smoking advocates point out that the CDC survey does not yet examine the impact of e-cigarettes on smoking rates.