Drop in Smoking Falling Short of U.S. Goal
ATLANTA — The rate of smoking among Americans continues to decline slowly but steadily, but the nation is not likely to reach a federal goal of 75% non-smokers by next year, federal health officials said Thursday.
A face-to-face survey of adult Americans, conducted in 1987, shows that 28.8% are cigarette smokers, the national Centers for Disease Control reported. That is down from 30.1% in a similar 1985 survey, but the decline apparently is not enough for researchers to project meeting the official federal goal of less than 25% by 1990.
CDC officials said they believed two years ago that the 1990 goal--one of several federal health targets set as this decade began--could be reached, partly because of a 1986 survey showing a national smoking rate of 26.5%.
But that survey, conducted by telephone, probably was not as precise as the face-to-face survey, the officials said.
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