Action on Smoking and Health A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions    Search  | Info About  | ash.org | To Join |  Email Page To Comment or Read Other Members' Comments, Click Here

Excerpts from: Blue-Collar Cities Lead in Smoking

By ERIN McCLAM newsday.com [12/13/01]

ATLANTA -- Blue-collar Midwestern and Southern cities such as Toledo, Ohio, Cleveland, and Huntington, W. Va., have the nation's highest adult smoking rates, according to the government's first city-by-city study of tobacco use.

Smoking rates are lowest in Western and Eastern cities such as San Diego and Bergen and Passaic, N.J., where no-smoking laws are stronger and cigarette taxes higher, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Toledo had the highest rate of any metropolitan area in the country, with more than 31 percent of its over-18 adults reporting they were smokers.

"We're a blue-collar town," said Arnie Elzey, a bar owner leading the fight against a smoking ban that has been held up by a lawsuit. "People enjoy sitting down with a beer and smoking a cigarette. It's Toledo. It's not California."

Orange County, Calif., had the nation's lowest rate -- just 13 percent.

California has the nation's toughest public smoking ban, prohibiting smoking even in bars.

The study examined 99 cities last year, asking respondents in a random telephone survey whether they smoked at least on some days and whether they had smoked more than 100 cigarettes. Those who answered yes to both were labeled smokers.

Federal health officials hope breaking down the statistics by city will help pinpoint areas where anti-smoking programs need to be stronger, said Dr. Terry Pechacek of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.

Eventually, the government hopes to pinpoint cultural variations in cities that might be leading more people to smoke.

In the Midwest, cities reported a median smoking rate among adults of 23.7 percent, with the South close behind at 23.2. The figure was lowest in the West at 20.6, with the Northeast at 20.8 percent.

CDC analysts credited strong anti-smoking programs in the regions with low rates.

Smoking rates nationwide have remained mostly stagnant since the mid-1990s, with just under one-fourth of the population saying they smoke cigarettes.

The CDC released also state-by-state smoking data. Kentucky led the nation with 30.5 percent of its population smoking, and Utah had the lowest rate, just 12.9 percent.

Those figures do not surprise health officials. Kentucky, a major tobacco producer, topped the list from 1995 to 1999 and was briefly unseated last year by Nevada, with its 24-hour, smoke-friendly casinos and bars.

Utah, where Mormon church opposition to smoking has been credited with keeping rates low, was also at the bottom of the list last year.

The government characterizes tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.