More than 16,400 residents of the Lexington, Ky., area have quit smoking in the 20 months since city officials imposed a citywide ban on smoking in indoor facilities, the ABC television affiliate WBKO reported Dec. 12.

Based on federal health interviews with more than 3,400 Kentucky residents between 2001 and 2004, University of Kentucky College of Nursing researchers were able to estimate that smoking rates in Lexington have dropped by nearly one-third since the city implemented its indoor smoking ban in April 2004.

The federal surveys indicated a smoking prevalence of 25.7 percent among Fayette County adults before the ban was adopted. The percentage of adult smokers in the county dropped to 17.5 percent in the months following the ban's enactment.

Ellen Hahn, co-author of the University of Kentucky report and a longtime proponent of the smoking ban, termed the community's substantial reduction in smoking "a huge thing."