Stranded in the Periphery — The Increasing Marginalization of Smokers

One of the greatest health advances in the past three decades has been the continuing decline in the prevalence of smoking, which recently hit a modern age-adjusted low of 19% of adults in the United States, down from a high of 57% of men in 1955 and 34% of women in 1965.1 Credit for these spectacular decreases has rightly focused on policy interventions such as increases in tobacco taxes, ordinances requiring smoke-free public places, countermarketing, and better ways to help smokers quit.24 These policy interventions are important tools, but how they have accomplished their results has not been clear. . . .