About one in four Americans (25%) say they have smoked a
cigarette within the past week, according to Gallup's 2004
Consumption Habits poll conducted in July. This represents a
significant decline since Gallup began asking the question in 1944,
when 41% of Americans said they'd smoked.
Americans have come a long way, but they didn't quit smoking
overnight. Historical data from the Gallup Brain shows that the
incidence of smoking in the United States did not begin to decrease
steadily until after 1972, and the decline was most
dramatic between 1972 and 1989. A look at the history of the
anti-smoking movement over the last several decades provides an
interesting parallel to this trend.
1944-1972
Reported cigarette smoking held relatively stable between 1944
and 1972, ranging between 40% and 45%. But the cultural foundation
of the campaign against smoking was being laid.
In 1954, only 41% of Americans thought that cigarette smoking
was one of the causes of lung cancer, while 31% said it was not one
of the causes and 26% didn't know. In 1957, after the release of
what was then a controversial report on the link between
cigarettes, heart disease, and lung cancer, 50% of Americans said
smoking caused lung cancer.
In 1964 -- a landmark year -- the first major report on the
negative health effects of smoking, "Smoking and Health: Report of
the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General," was published. And
the American Medical Association officially defined smoking as a
serious health hazard. The trend continued in 1965, when Congress
passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, which
required that all cigarette packages include a label warning
consumers that "cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health."
In 1967, the Surgeon General reported that smoking was a principal
cause of lung cancer.
By 1969, 64% of Americans said they believed smoking was a cause
of lung cancer. But it was some time before many Americans were
convinced to quit; the long-term decline in cigarette smoking did
not begin until after 1972. This decline was shortly preceded by
the end of all cigarette advertising on radio and television in
1971. By April 1972, 70% of Americans believed that smoking caused
lung cancer.
1972-1989
Shortly after cigarette companies were deprived of the primary
mass communication media to promote their product, reported
cigarette smoking coincidentally went into a sustained decline,
dropping from 43% in 1972 to an average of 28% in 1989. In 1973,
the Civil Aeronautics Board required all commercial airline flights
to have nonsmoking sections. Arizona became the first state to
restrict smoking in public places that same year.
The provision of cigarettes in U.S. soldiers' K-rations and
C-rations was discontinued in 1975. In 1977, 81% of Americans said
they believed smoking caused lung cancer.
In 1980, the U.S. Public Health Service set a goal to reduce the
incidence of smoking to 25% by 1990, a goal that Gallup's smoking
trend indicates was nearly achieved. In 1981, 83% of Americans said
they believed smoking caused lung cancer.
In the mid-1980s, serious tobacco education and prevention
programs began to take hold. Minnesota became the first
state to set aside a portion of its cigarette excise taxes for
smoking prevention programs in 1985. Smoking restrictions also
became more widespread: The U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services became smoke-free in 1987, and smoking was banned on all
domestic flights lasting fewer than two hours in 1988.
1989-2004
Starting in 1989, Gallup data show that the decline in reported
cigarette use leveled off, fluctuating between 23% and 28%. In
1990, 94% of Americans said that smoking caused lung cancer, and
since then, that percentage has held around 9 in 10 Americans.
In 1994, Mississippi became the first state to sue the tobacco
industry to recover Medicaid costs for tobacco-related illness. In
1999, 46 states and five U.S. territories signed the Master
Settlement Agreement, in which the country's largest tobacco
companies agreed to pay the states $206 billion to settle Medicaid
suits.
Bottom Line
Over the past 40 years, federal and state governments have done
a great deal to reduce the demand for tobacco products in
the United States, by educating the public about the health risks.
But those examining Gallup's historical smoking trend could make
the case that the greatest successes have come from the
supply perspective -- through restricting the ability of
the tobacco industry to market its products, and restricting
people's ability to smoke in public places.
