NEW YORK, June 21 (Xinhua) -- New York City's smoking rate has plummeted some 20 percent since a comprehensive program against smoking was launched in 2002, according to findings issued by the national Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday.

    According to CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), New York City's adult smoking rate decreased sharply from 21.6 percent in 2002 to 17.5 percent in 2006, a 18.9-percent decrease.

    Nationally, the adult smoking rate has been declining much more slowly and stood at 20.9 percent in 2005, the last year for which the CDC has publicly reported data.

    New York City owes its success to a package of aggressive anti-smoking measures adopted by the city, including a high tax on tobacco products, a strong smoke-free workplace law, and launching hard-hitting anti-tobacco ads.

    Ads from the 2006 campaign graphically depicted the effects of smoking on the brain, lungs and arteries, showing testimonials from sick and dying smokers and their children, including former smoker Ronaldo Martinez, who now breaths through a hole in his throat as a result of smoking-related cancer.

    In a separate survey, nine out of 10 smokers said they saw the ads and half of the smokers said the ads made them want to quit.

    The anti-smoking efforts in the city have resulted in 240,000 fewer smokers since 2002 and already prevented some 80,000 premature deaths.

    NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said: "In spite of great progress, we have much farther to go... More than 1 million New Yorkers are still smoking, and nearly 9,000 are dying from smoking-related disease every year."

    In the United States, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 people and costing the nation more than 96 billion U.S. dollars in healthcare bills each year.

    Smoking rates are calculated from the U.S. Health Department's Community Health Survey, an annual, random-digit-dial telephone survey of 10,000 New York City adults.