TOLL OF TOBACCO IN IOWA

Tobacco Use in Iowa

• High school students who smoke - 22.2% (37,100)
• Male high school students who use smokeless or spit tobacco - 14.9%
  (females use much lower)
• Kids (under 18) who become new daily smokers each year - 4,200
• Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home - 231,000
• Packs of cigarettes bought or smoked by kids each year - 7.6 million
  Adults in Iowa who smoke - 20.4% (468,200)

Nationwide, youth smoking has declined since the mid-1990’s, but that decline appears to have slowed considerably or even stopped in recent years. The 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) found that the percentage of hifh school students reporting that they have smoked cigarettes in the past month increased to 23 percent in 2005 from 21.9 percent in 2003. This increase follows a 40 percent decline between 1997, when rates peaked at 36.4 percent, and 2003. The survey also found that 13.6 percent of high school males use spit tobacco. U.S. adult smoking has decreased gradulayy in the last several decades, and 20.9 percent of U.S. adults (about 45 million) currently smoke.

Deaths in Iowa From Smoking

• Adults who die each year from their own smoking - 4,500
• Kids now under 18 and alive in Iowa who will ultimately die
  prematurely from smoking - 66,000
• Adults, children, & babies who die each year from others' smoking
  (secondhand smoke & pregnancy smoking) - 370 to 660

Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined -- and thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes -- such as fires caused by smoking (more than 1,000 deaths/year nationwide) and smokeless tobacco use. No good estimates are currently available, however, for the number of Iowa citizens who die from these other tobacco-related causes, or for the much larger numbers who suffer from tobacco-related health problems each year without actually dying.

Smoking-Caused Monetary Costs in Iowa

• Annual health care costs in Iowa directly caused by smoking - $1
  billion
• Portion covered by the state Medicaid program - $301 million
• Residents' state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government
  expenditures  - $602 per household
• Smoking-caused productivity losses in Iowa - $964 million

Amounts do not include health costs caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, spit tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking. Other non-health costs from tobacco use include residential and commercial property losses from smoking-caused fires (more than $500 million per year nationwide); extra cleaning and maintenance costs made necessary by tobacco smoke and litter (about $4+ billion nationwide for commercial establishments alone); and additional productivity losses from smoking-caused work absences, smoking breaks, and on-the-job performance declines and early termination of employment caused by smoking-caused disability or illness (dollar amount listed above is just from productive work lives shortened by smoking-caused death).

Tobacco Industry Influence in Iowa

• Annual tobacco industry marketing expenditures nationwide - $15.4
  billion
• Estimated portion spent for Iowa marketing each year - $192.1 million

Published research studies have found that kids are three times more sensitive to tobacco advertising than adults and are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette marketing than by peer pressure, and that one-third of underage experimentation with smoking is attributable to tobacco company advertising.

(tobaccofreekids.org Copyright © 2005 National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids)