The downward trend in smoking you saw in the last exercise is good news for the health of babies, but will it ever stop?
a) Explain why you can’t use the linear model you created in Exercise R2.26 to see when smoking during pregnancy will cease altogether.
b) Create a model that could estimate the year in which the level of smoking would be 0%.

c) Comment on the reliability of such a prediction.

Data From Review Exercise 2.26

The Child Trends Data Bank monitors issues related to children. The table shows a 50-state average of the percent of expectant mothers who smoked cigarettes during their pregnancies.

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% Smoking Year While Pregnant 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 19.2 18.7 17.9 16.8 16.0 15.4 15.3 14.9 14.8 14.1 14.0 % Smoking Year While Pregnant 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 13.8 13.3 12.7 10.9 10.1 10.0 10.4 9.7 9.3 9.2 9.0