U.S. Cigarette Sales Drop to 55 Year Low

By Joseph W. Cherner

Tobacco addiction still kills 440,000 Americans each year

Parts excerpted from Reuters, 3/9/06

WASHINGTON, March 8 - The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years. According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999.

Nevertheless, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still reports that tobacco addiction is the U.S.'s greatest cause of preventable death, killing approximately 440,000 Americans each year from lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other tobacco-caused diseases.

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