The smoking rate among American adults is declining, according to a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control.
In 2015, 15 percent of U.S. adults were smokers, a 2 percent reduction from the previous year. Lance Boucher of the American Lung Association of the Northeast says Maine’s adult smoking rate is also declining, but trends higher than the national average.
“We’ve been stuck in the 19 or 20 percent range for the last couple of years, through 2014 data,” he says.
Boucher says Maine’s tobacco control funding has declined in recent years, and is at about 50 percent of the recommended level by the CDC.
