From the Vincennes Sun Commercial

By Travis Snyder
tsnyder@suncommercial.com
Cigarette smoking in the U.S. is up for the first time since 1994 and, given Knox County’s history of having above average smoking rates, it is probable smoking has increased locally as well.
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 20.6 percent of U.S. adults said they smoke, up from 19.8 percent a year ago.
The data was gathered after the CDC conducted in-person interviews with nearly 22,000 adults. The CDC also released state-by-state results that showed Virginia and Indiana having the highest smoking rates in the country at about 26 percent.
In 2007, Indiana was sixth in the country with a 24.1 percent smoking rate.
The state’s increased numbers has local anti-tobacco advocates concerned.
Jennifer Holscher was the former coordinator of Tobacco Free Knox County, which had to disband after running out of funding. She said the newly released numbers were discouraging.
“Just so much effort has been put into it to raise awareness of the dangers and the harms of it,” Holscher said. “Yeah, I was a bit surprised to see that. I guess more disappointed. It’s disappointing more than surprising.”
The CDC did not release county-by-county results for each state, so it is currently uncertain whether the local smoking rate has increased. Holscher said it ’s likely.
Without data or statistics on the matter, Holscher was reluctant to speculate why there has been an increase.
“Other than perhaps just the cuts in funding that we’ve seen for prevention and cessation programs, that’s really the only thing that I would think would probably be the primary cause,” she said.
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