The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that reduced spending on anti-tobacco campaigns and bigger marketing budgets from cigarette companies are the reasons for stable smoking rates.

After declining for seven years, US smoking rates have remained steady at about 21 per cent from 2004 to 2006. According to a CDC report released on 8 November, this stabilised smoking prevalence during the past two years may be the result of several factors. Most notably, funding for state tobacco control and prevention programs decreased by 20.3 per cent from 2002 to 2006, while tobacco-industry marketing spending nearly doubled from US$ 6.7 billion in 1998 to US$ 13.1 billion in 2005, according to the report. In 2005, about 81 per cent (US$ 10.6 billion) of tobacco-industry marketing expenditure were related to discounting strategies that reduce the impact of increases in the unit price of tobacco.
The report states that about 20.8 per cent of US adults smoked in 2006. Of these, 80.1 per cent smoked every day, and 19.9 per cent smoked some days. (ci)