About point #2, I wonder if the deaths caused by smoking remains high in the US because it's measured effect can be really delayed. Even if sales of cigarettes

About point #2, I wonder if the deaths caused by smoking remains high in the US because it's measured effect can be really delayed. Even if sales of cigarettes went down in the mid-70's, they were probably still high for quite a while. On top of that, the effects of smoking can take decades to appear. I could imagine somebody starting smoking in the mid 70's and not seeing effects until recently. EDIT: It turns out reading even not-so-carefully results in fruit! From the article: > But the chart also shows that smoking peaked earlier in the US. Since there is a lag of two to three decades between the peak of smoking and the peak of smoking mortality, this should be positive news for the US going forward. The country is over this mortality peak and we should expect the decline in lung cancer death rates in the US to continue in the coming years.