CDC Reports Stall in Eight-Year Smoking Decline New research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates a stall in the eight-year smoking rate decline among adults in the United States. Tobacco use has fallen overall from approximately 40% in 1964 to 21% in 2005. Over the past six years, nicotine delivery by the most popular cigarette brands has increased by as much as 10%, according to a separate study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In addition to those findings, research from 2000 found that although 70 percent of U.S. smokers report wanting to quit, only five percent are successful over the long term. These facts challenge the nation’s efforts to meet the CDC’s Healthy People 2010 objectives — a national adult smoking rate of 12 percent by the year 2010. More importantly, these findings urge us all to strengthen our efforts to combat our nation’s number-one cause of preventable death — tobacco use.