Smoke Signals: Tracking North Dakota’s Tobacco Trends

As I was at one of our local stores over the weekend, I was behind several customers who wanted to buy a few packs of cigarettes. It didn't bother me that they were purchasing them, but I thought things were slowing down when it came to smoking.

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Because the people I spend a lot of time around with do not smoke, I only sometimes come across someone who still does. It would appear that if I were to go to my favorite casino in the area, I would be the one to encounter the smokers—in fact, I would encounter all of them.

In a recent piece, MSN examined the smoking rates of all 50 states and determined where each state stands. The percentage listed below is the average of residents who smoke in each state.

Let's Take A Look At Our Region:

• South Dakota - 19%
• Wyoming - 19%
• North Dakota - 18%
• Minnesota - 14%

According to MSN, this breaks down to nearly 12% of adults in America smoking according to the CDC with 13% of those men and 10% being women which truly means barely anyone smokes anymore after all. It might not sound like a lot, but that is still high!

As I thought about my recent visit to the local store and the few people who were buying smokes, I couldn't help but think about how smoking is becoming less common in our society. Many of the people I know don't smoke, so the only places I occasionally see smokers are casinos and places where I know a lot of smokers. A new study by MSN that looked at smoking rates in all 50 states supports this trend, showing that people are smoking less across the country. Smoking is becoming less popular in our communities because only a small percentage of adults light up. This is a big change in what is normal in society.

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