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Des Moines Register Article

Number of smokers in Iowa dips study finds (By Tony Leys - Register Staff Writer) Iowa continues to see a steady decline in smoking, a new state study shows. Eighteen percent of Iowa adults smoked cigarettes last year. That compares to 20 percent in 2004 and 23 percent in 2002, according to the survey. The survey of 1,950 people had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. That means the most recent drop could be due to chance. But Bonnie Mapes, who runs Iowa's anti-smoking division, said the 5-point drop from 2002 to 2006 is solid and encouraging. 'Now we know there's a true trend,' she said. Smoking rates have declined since the 1960s, when nearly half of American adults smoked. The current national average is 21 percent. Mapes said one of the survey's most disturbing findings is that poor people are more than twice as likely to smoke as the rest in Iowa. The survey estimated that 44 percent of adults living in poverty smoke. Also, Mapes said, the smoking rate for Iowans ages 18 through 24 was 34 percent - about twice the rate for all adults. Seventy-two percent of Iowa's cigarette smokers said they would like to quit. Seventy-two percent of smokers with children ages 5 to 17 said their children had encouraged them to quit. The portion of Iowans who said they had ever used tobacco regularly dropped from 48 percent in 2002 to 41 percent in 2006. The survey, conducted by the University of Northern Iowa, cost $60,000. Reporter Tony Leys can be reached at (515) 284-8449 or tleys@dmreg.com
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