The California Department of Health yesterday announced the state’s smoking prevalence rate, which has hit an all-time low of 13.1 percent, the lowest in the nation next to Utah’s. (Check out the data here and here.)
Lots of local newspaper stories are trumpeting their individual county’s triumph over tobacco addiction. Marin — superlative! San Mateo — excellent! Contra Costa and Alameda — kudos! Santa Clara — well done! And San Francisco, well, needless to say, just…uh…well…
Hmm.
From the Chronicle:
More San Francisco adults smoke than those in most other urban and suburban counties in California, according to data on smoking rates released by state health officials Monday…
Counties that are more urban and suburban tend to have significantly lower smoking rates than rural areas. Exceptions in California include San Francisco, an urban county, and Sacramento, home of the state Capitol and outlying suburbs….
“We’re like 40 percent higher than L.A., which is very surprising,” said Dr. Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine and director of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. Los Angeles had a smoking prevalence of 10.4 percent.
The Chronicle article goes on to cite a project director of the California LGBT Tobacco Education Partnership as attributing the city’s high smoking numbers in part to “significantly higher rates” among gays and lesbians.