Utah has the lowest number of cigarette smokers in the country, according to a survey showing that smoking rates nationwide have moved up slightly for the first time in 15 years.

Only 9 percent of Utahns smoke, compared to about 21 percent of their fellow Americans. The national figure is up slightly from the 19.8 percent who reported themselves as smokers the previous year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The results foiled CDC officials' hopes for another decline to below 20 percent — perhaps permanently — below 20 percent.

The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising.

"Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

There's a general perception that smoking is a dying public health danger. Feeding that perception are indoor smoking laws, cigarette taxes and Congress' recent decision to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.

A state survey released in September showed that a record low number of Utahns smoke and that tobacco use in general in Utah has declined by 33 percent since 1999, the year that an anti-smoking campaign funded by the Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers that were sued nationwide went into effect.

Public health administrators credit the reduction in use to the public awareness campaign underwritten by the settlement, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and the TRUTH marketing campaign, as well as the new $1 per-pack federal cigarette tax and nearly constant anti-tobacco drumbeat surrounding a push to increase Utah's tobacco tax.

New efforts by tobacco companies to target youth could undermine the decline in tobacco use, said Amy Sands, program manager for the Utah Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

Smoking and other uses of tobacco products continue to decline, but nicotine is coming at children in breath mints, candy and toothpicks, Sands said.

"The products are designed to make tobacco addiction more accessible as well as to promote the dual use of cigarettes and smokeless products, creating an even stronger addiction," she said.

The adult smoking rate nationwide has been dropping in starts and stops since the mid-1960s when roughly two out of five U.S. adults smoked. It's now one in five.

Many of the states that have the lowest smoking rates are those that have been the most aggressive about indoor smoking laws and about state taxes that drive up the cost of cigarettes, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC's director.

Health officials are optimistic that escalating cigarette taxes discourage more and more smokers from lighting up. Utah lawmakers will likely consider legislation to raise the state tax as much as $2 on a pack of cigarettes.

Contributing: Associated Press

e-mail: jthalman@desnews.com