State's smoking rate way down even before new ban took effect

Smoking has taken a major nose dive in Washington state — even without factoring in the statewide indoor-smoking ban that took effect last December.

Based on surveys taken through the end of last year, 17.8 percent of the state's adults smoked as of the end of 2005, compared with 22.4 percent in 1999, just before a well-funded statewide anti-tobacco campaign began, state health officials announced Wednesday.

That's a 20.5 percent drop and represents 205,000 fewer smokers.

The new figure ranks the state fifth in the nation for non-smoking. Only Utah, California, Connecticut and Hawaii had lower levels. The national average is about 21 percent.

"It's clearly a healthy success," Washington Secretary of Health Mary Selecky said. "Washington has become a national leader in fighting tobacco."

In King County, 13.3 percent of adults smoke as of the end of 2005, compared to 23.1 percent in 2000.

Initiative 901, which prohibits smoking in buildings accessible to the public and in places of employment, took effect in December. The current smoking statistics don't reflect any significant changes in smoking that the ban may have triggered.

But state officials said calls to the state Tobacco Quit Line more than doubled in January. Those calls then gradually declined to a current average of about 1,000 a month, said Terry Reid, who heads the state Department of Health's tobacco-control program.

Selecky estimated the decrease in smoking will mean a savings of about $1.8 billion in future health costs.

State health officials have spent $32 million since 2000 to promote quitting smoking, including the hotline, advertising and promotions, and training doctors and other health workers to counsel patients. The money comes from $100 million won in 1999 in a nationwide settlement with tobacco companies and $30 million from an increased tax on tobacco, approved in 2001.

But much work still remains, Selecky said. About a quarter of young adults in Washington, ages 18 to 29, smoke, and the habit is more prevalent among African Americans, Native Americans, gay men and lesbians. About 20 percent of high-school seniors smoke.

"Getting to No. 5 [in the U.S.] was hard work," said Selecky. "But we want to keep driving it down. More hard work is getting to the hard core — the young people who ... say they're not really ready to quit or the young person who says, yeah, I'll give smoking a try."

Warren King: 206-464-2247 or wking@seattletimes.com