Don't Forget Tobacco

At a time when all eyes are focused on health care reform, escalating medical costs, and childhood obesity, cigarette smoking remains by far the most common cause of preventable death and disability in the United States. Because important strides have been made in tobacco control, in terms of both interventions (tax hikes and laws creating smoke-free workplaces) and outcomes (smoking prevalence that has more than halved since the early 1960s [see graph]), it is tempting to believe that the battle is largely won and that we should move on to other pressing public health issues. But the prevalence of smoking . . .