Workers of centain U.S. industries smoke most

Miners, construction workers and people in hotel and food service industry are most likely to smoke in the U.S., according to new research finding. The finding was contained in a report released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the finding, miners and people in hotel and food service have a cigarette smoking rate of 30 percent, followed closely by construction workers' 29.7 percent. Both rates are much higher than the average smoking rate of 19.6 percent among all U.S. working adults. Workers in the education services industry have the lowest smoking rate, with 9.7 percent, followed by the 10.9 percent of workers in company management, the report said. Low education levels are a factor in high smoking rates, along with poverty and gender, said Ann Malarcher, senior scientific adviser at the CDC. "Although some progress has been made in reducing smoking prevalence among working adults," the report wrote, "additional effective employer interventions need to be implemented." Smoking kills an estimated 443,000 each year in the U.S., costing about 193 billion U.S. dollars annually in direct health care expenses and productivity loss.