Number of Smokers Drops 17%, Study Says

California’s ambitious smoking-control program reduced the percentage of smokers by 17% in three years, although many still fail in their efforts to kick the habit, according to a study released Tuesday.

If the trend continues, California will reach its goal of cutting smoking by 75% by the year 2000, said study co-author John Pierce of an associate professor of medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

“We’re on target to reach what I once called a ridiculously optimistic goal,” said Pierce, who released a comprehensive report on the campaign at the American Heart Assn.’s annual science writers’ meeting in Galveston, Tex.

The $2.5-million state-funded study, based on a random telephone poll during the last year of 26,815 adults and 7,767 adolescents, also found that smokers overwhelmingly want to quit and that a majority of smokers favor bans on cigarette advertising, Pierce said.

The percentage of smokers in California has dropped from 26.8% in 1987 to 22.2% in 1990, a 17% reduction, Pierce said. California is aiming to reduce smoking to 6% of the population by the year 2000, a roughly 75% drop from 1988.

The drop so far was attributed to a high-profile television advertising campaign, education efforts with schools and doctors, and an increase of 25 cents per pack in cigarette taxes, Pierce said.

But clearly, many smokers are stymied when they try to quit. During the last year, half of all smokers attempted to quit and only 11% were successful, said Dr. John Burns, co-author of the study and a UC San Diego professor of medicine.

“We are most successful in getting people to try to quit. We need to invest more effort in getting people to stay off cigarettes once they do try,” said Burns, who is also medical director of respiratory therapy at the UC San Diego Medical Center. “We must reduce smoking at work and reduce tobacco advertising and promotion.”

In a somewhat startling finding, only 40% of smokers who saw their doctors in the last year said they had been advised to quit. But a physician’s advice often prompted a smoker to try, Burns said.

The figures were particularly discouraging among black men, who were most likely to try to quit and least likely to succeed. Sixty percent tried, Burns said; 4% succeeded.

The two most important stumbling blocks to further reductions are teen-agers, who continue to start smoking, and the high failure rate of smokers who try to quit.

“Kids really respond to advertising,” Burns said. “And kids have ready access to cigarettes. They find no difficulty at all in purchasing cigarettes, and vending machines appear to be one source.”

The other problem is the physically addictive properties of nicotine, Pierce said. “Our survey shows conclusively that we don’t have to promote quitting. Everybody’s trying. Fifty percent try each year. Ninety percent are failing.”

Pierce said health campaigns have been effective in discouraging adults from starting to smoke. “But our message--smoking kills--plays only to mature adults,” he said. Teen-agers have not responded to it, particularly in the face of tobacco advertising that associates smoking with a desirable self-image, he said.

In 1988, when anti-smoking Proposition 99 was passed, it kicked off a “tremendous consciousness-raising about tobacco,” Burns said. This heightened awareness, he said, is reflected in the 17% drop among smokers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.