"The proportion of American adults who smoke cigarettes has hit a new low, new federal data show. And among those who do smoke, fewer are lighting up every day, and even they are smoking fewer cigarettes.

A national health survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 17.8% of U.S. adults – or 42.1 million people – were “current cigarette smokers” in 2013. That’s the lowest percentage since the annual survey began keeping track in 1965, according to the authors of a study published Wednesday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

But Americans still have a ways to go to meet the nation’s Healthy People 2020 target, the study notes. That target, set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, aims to limit the adult smoking rate at no more than 12%."

Karen Kaplan reports for the Los Angeles Times November 26, 2014. [2]