Good News: the Center for Disease Control says smoking rates continue to fall.

Good News: the Center for Disease Control says smoking rates continue to fall.

Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that the latest data show how tobacco use remains “a persistent and preventable health threat” — despite smoking rates being at all-time lows. Of the 36 million current smokers, Frieden said, “nearly half could die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses, including 6 million from cancer, unless we implement the programs that will help smokers quit.”

Source: NBC News

Between 2009 and 2013, about 660,000 people a year were diagnosed with cancers related to tobacco use, the CDC reported. About 340,000 people died of those cancers.

Yet a separate report in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows how much progress has been made against cigarette smoking over the past decade. From 2005 to 2015, smoking among adults declined from 20.9 percent, or 45.1 million people, to 15.1 percent, or 36.5 million. The overall rate fell 1.7 percentage points last year alone, resulting in the lowest prevalence since the CDC began collecting data in 1965.

Less people are lighting up. The CDC reports cigarette smoking rates have hit an all-time low.

Researchers say the number of smokers dropped about 15-percent, from 45-million to nearly 37-million between 2005 and 2015.

Although the CDC is happy with fewer smokers, they say more anti-tobacco action is still needed.

They say nearly half of all cancer diagnosis are linked to tobacco use.