Tobacco

Tobacco use, including cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco, are major public health burdens that needlessly shorten thousands of lives each year, while severely increasing fiscal strains on the American health care system. Kansas and Missouri together see nearly 14,000 deaths each year from smoking and nearly 2,000 more deaths from second-hand smoke. Tobacco-related health care expenses for Kansans and Missourians top $3 billion annually - including $700 million in Medicaid expenses each year.

While these negative effects of tobacco are well documented, perhaps the chemical nature of cigarettes is more sobering. The average cigarette contains a poisonous mix of over 7,000 chemicals - hundreds of which are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer. At the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, we’ve been proud to fund projects aimed at tobacco prevention and cessation, as well as efforts to reduce smoking in public places.

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Facts

National

  • The effects of smoking cause one in five deaths in the United States.

    The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors. PLoS Medicine; April 28, 2009.

  • Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States.

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Tobacco Use, Targeting the Nation’s Leading Killer: At A Glance 2010.

  • The number of Americans who smoke has decreased over the past decade, but as of 2010, nearly 20% of all adults smoked.

    Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data From the January-June 2010 National Health Interview; CDC, December, 2010.

  • Each year an estimated 46,000 non-smokers die from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke. Another 3,400 non-smokers die from lung cancer caused by second-hand smoke.

  • The benefits of implementing clean indoor-air laws include decreased risks of heart attack in the community.

    HCF White Paper Examining Tobacco in Kansas and Missouri: Policy Options to Reduce the Burden, Prepared by Jessica Hembree, HCF Program Officer.

  • Cigarette taxes reduce the number of smokers, particularly among youth. These taxes can also raise needed public revenue to treat the negative health effects of smoking and second-hand smoke.

    HCF White Paper Examining Tobacco in Kansas and Missouri: Policy Options to Reduce the Burden, Prepared by Jessica Hembree, HCF Program Officer.

  • Smoking causes half a million deaths each year in the U.S.

    Smoking-attributable Mortality in the United States, Epidemiology. 2011 May;22(3):350-5.

Regional

  • Missouri has the fifth highest smoking rate in the nation, where 23% of the adult population smokes. Nearly 18% of adult Kansans smoke.

    State-Specific Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco Use Among Adults - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, November 5, 2010.

  • Missouri's cigarette tax of $0.17 per pack is the lowest in the nation. Kansas’ is only the 36th highest in the nation at $0.79. The average state tax is $1.45 per pack.

    State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates & Rankings, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, August 2010.

  • Increasing Missouri’s cigarette tax from $0.17 per pack to $1.00 per pack would raise nearly $400 million per year in state revenue while saving thousands of lives. The long-term health care savings from the decline in smoking would be over $2 billion.

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