Americans losing respect for smokers, poll shows

John Egan

Americans are growing less tolerant of smokers, according to a new Gallup poll.

Now, 24 percent of Americans say they have less respect for someone who smokes. Gallup says anti-smoker bias is higher today than it was two decades ago, when between 14 percent and 17 percent of Americans said they had less respect for smokers. Growth of the non-smoking population over the same period may explain some of that sentiment, as the percentage of adult smokers has fallen from 27 percent to 22 percent.

“With one in four Americans admitting to having less respect for smokers, smokers in the U.S. face not only serious health risks and higher insurance rates, but a significant social handicap,” Gallup says.

Naturally, non-smokers are the primary source of bias against smokers, according to Gallup. Thirty percent of non-smokers say they have less respect for smokers, while just 5 percent of smokers share this view. However, former smokers are nearly as likely as adults who’ve never smoked — 24 percent versus 33 percent — to look down on smokers.

Americans age 65 and older, those who have a college degree and those who earn $75,000 or more a year are among the least likely American adults to smoke and, correspondingly, are among the most likely to report less respect for smokers.

In the poll, two in three smokers say the habit is “very harmful” to adults. The 67 percent of smokers who say smoking is very harmful matches the previous record high from a Gallup poll in 2004.

The National Cancer Institute estimates cigarette smoking causes 443,000 deaths each year.