In most Western high-income countries, the prevalence of smoking increased among men in the first half of the 20th century and peaked in the post–World War II decades, with 80% of men having smoked at some point in their adult lives. Smoking among men subsequently declined in English-speaking countries and in northern Europe, followed by more than two decades of decline in age-standardized mortality from lung cancer (Figure 2AFIGURE 2
Trends in Lung-Cancer Mortality and Prevalence of Daily Tobacco Smoking in 2008.
) and in deaths from other diseases attributable to smoking.