There are two occupational groups that should know best about the consequences of smoking:

• The scientists, who did the research over the past few decades and found out all the details and …
• The doctors who dedicated their study time to the human body and whose professional life is all about the health of the people.

But let’s not ask them for their opinion. Let’s rather look at how they decide for them selves! This becomes possible through the data from the National Health Interview Survey, 2004–2010 published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion that has data on the occupation and the smoking status of 113,266 Americans [1].

Scientists Don’t Smoke

Scientists, depending on their actual job description would categorize themselves as working in either education or research. Looking at the data of the study [1], the two occupational groups with the lowest smoking rates happen to be “education, training, and library” and “life, physical, and social science” with smoking rates of 8.7 % and 9.2 % respectively.

Comparing these values to the overall smoking rate of the sample population that was 19.6 % it can be seen tat people working in education and science are less likely to decide for smoking by a factor of two compared to the general public.

Doctors Don’t Smoke

So what about the doctors and other people working in the health business? They are accounted for in the “health-care practitioners and technical” category of the survey [1]. Of the 5,720 people in this category surveyed 11.8 % where smokers. The rate here is not as low as with research and education but still far below the population average of 19.6 %.

A further interesting effect seen from the study is that the more educated people get, the higher their highest degree the lower the smoking rates. So yes, you can learn to make good decisions. You can learn to become a non-smoker.

Return to campaign home.

Sources:

1. Current Cigarette Smoking Prevalence Among Working Adults — United States, 2004–2010, Girija Syamlal and Jacek M. Mazurek, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 60, Iss. 38, pp. 1305-1309, September 2011. link