Smoking rate among adults hits new low

Fewer adults are smoking in Washington, according to a survey by the State Department of Health, which reported a new low rate of 17 percent for 2006.

The rate has declined 24 percent since 1999 — 235,000 fewer smokers in seven years. But the latest reported drop was less than 1 percent and may not be statistically significant.

That signals that the toughest challenge is still ahead, said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky: Lower-income, less-educated people are still smoking at higher rates and are less likely to quit successfully.

Smoking among those groups has not dropped significantly in recent years, the state's surveys show.

About a third of adults who earn less than $25,000 a year smoke, as do about 27 percent of those with a high-school education or less, the survey showed.

Since 1999, the greatest reductions in smoking rates have been among adults with income of $50,000 or more and those with at least a college degree.

The county with the lowest rate of adult smokers — 9.7 percent — is Whitman, where more than 92 percent of residents are at least high-school graduates and 44 percent have college degrees, according to census data.

King County has the third-lowest rate in the state, with 12.4 percent of adults smoking. In Pend Oreille County, by contrast, 28.7 percent of adults smoke.

"What we have discovered is that low-income folks will try to quit, but they're less successful about quitting in the long term," Selecky said.

Selecky said the state will shift money so that more nicotine-replacement therapies, such as patches, are available to low-income residents who want to quit.

"I'd rather invest that money than have them spending $5 a pack," Selecky said. "This is about preventing premature death."

Overall, Washington's smoking rate continues to be fifth lowest in the nation.

Selecky said it wasn't possible from the survey to know what pushed those who quit to do so, but the possibilities range from Washington's indoor-smoking ban to increased taxes on tobacco.

The telephone survey contacted 23,000 adults around the state.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com. Staff researcher David Turim contributed to this story.