Amid Smoking Decline, Look Who’s Still Lighting Up
In the 1960s, more than 40 percent of Americans smoked. Now, that’s down to 18 percent. Not only are fewer people smoking, heavy smokers are consuming fewer cigarettes.
“We are winning the war,” Koval says. “I guess from my perspective, we’d rather win the war faster.”
She says the overall numbers mask a huge cultural variation.
“I live in Washington, D.C.; we have a low smoking rate here. But if you go to a place like West Virginia, which has the highest smoking rate in the country, the behavior feels completely normalized,” Koval says.
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