About 20 percent of adults used some type of tobacco in 2015, according to data compiled by the CDC and Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products and published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The data marks the first time the CDC and the FDA collaborated to use the National Health Interview Survey to assess a range of tobacco use among adults. More than 33,000 adults responded to the survey. Researchers used the responses to generate nationally representative estimates of tobacco use. Of the nearly 49 million estimated tobacco product users, 42 million reported the use of combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars or pipes.
"Too many Americans are harmed by cigarette smoking, which is the nation's leading preventable cause of death and disease," said Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, director of the CDC. "CDC will continue to use proven strategies to help smokers quit and to prevent children from using any tobacco products."
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