Smoking has dropped sharply among the city's women since 2002, according to a survey released Monday by health officials. The number of female smokers over 18 dropped from 630,000 in 2002 to 507,000 in 2005, the last year for which numbers were available, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Community Health Survey, a random telephone survey of 10,000 residents.
"Women are taking charge of their health," city health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said. "And for tobacco companies, that's bad news."
Frieden singled out the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which is using pink packaging and fashion magazine ads to market a new cigarette brand aimed at women called Camel No. 9.
"R.J. Reynolds' new products are a shameless effort to reverse the gains women are making," Frieden said.
Cressida Lozano, vice president for marketing of the Camel brand at Reynolds American, has said that Camel No. 9 is about "giving adult smokers a choice with products we believe are more appealing than existing products."
According to the health department numbers, the smoking rate among women fell from 20 percent in 2002 to 16 percent in 2005. During the same period, only one new smoker in four was a woman, the survey found.
The lower smoking rate coincides with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's time in office. Bloomberg entered City Hall in 2001 and took aim at smoking, increasing cigarette taxes and banning smoking in bars and restaurants.
The city also has given nicotine patches to tens of thousands of people to help them quit smoking.
Bloomberg, a former smoker and the billionaire founder of the Bloomberg L.P. financial information company, announced late last year he would pour $125 million of his own money into a worldwide campaign against smoking, a cause he said was largely neglected by philanthropists.
Bloomberg, who quit smoking about 30 years ago, said the funds will help jump-start an international no-smoking drive over two years. He has described his anti-smoking campaign as a "social investment."