Clearing the smoke: the science base for tobacco harm reduction—executive summary

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Nearly one quarter of adult Americans—an estimated 47 million people—smoke cigarettes.1 Although this is far lower than the 42% recorded in 1965, the decline in the rates of smoking among adults appears to have levelled off during much of the 1990s.2 In a recent survey, 12.8% of middle school children and 34.8% of high school students reported some form of tobacco use during the month prior to their being interviewed.3 The vast majority of smokers begin tobacco use during adolescence.4 However, 70% of smokers say they want to quit5 and 34% of smokers make an attempt to quit each year. Thus, many but not all tobacco users find it very difficult to quit and continually expose themselves to known toxic agents.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: