|
Tobacco Use in Iowa |
|
|
High school students who smoke |
37%
|
|
High school males who use smokeless tobacco |
22%
|
|
Number of kids (under 18) who become new daily
smokers each year |
12,000
|
|
Kids exposed to secondhand smoke at home |
231,000
|
|
Number of packs of cigarettes illegally sold
to kids in Iowa each year |
3.0
|
|
Adults in Iowa who smoke |
23%
|
|
While adult smoking has generally been decreasing
throughout the country in recent years, these declines have slowed
or stopped. In contrast, smoking among kids increased steadily
throughout much of the 1990s. Although national underage smoking
rates finally dropped slightly from 1997 to 1998, they remain
at historically high levels. Over the past ten years, the number
of kids under 18 in the U.S. who become new daily smokers each
year has risen by more than 70 percent. |
|
Deaths in Iowa From Smoking |
|
|
Number of people who die each year in Iowa from
smoking |
4,900
|
Number of Iowa kids now under 18 who will die
from smoking
(if current trends continue) |
53,000
|
|
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),
exposure to second hand smoke (more than 40,000 deaths), 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. |
|
Tobacco Related Monetary Costs |
|
|
Annual health care expenditures in Iowa directly
related to tobacco use |
$610 million
|
|
Residents' state and federal tax burden caused
by tobacco-related health costs |
$310 million
|
|
Iowa government Medicaid payments directly related
to tobacco use |
$70 million
|
|
Additional annual expenditures in Iowa for babies'
health problems caused by mothas smoking or being exposed to
second hand smoke during pregnancy |
$20 to $S9 million
|
|
Additional health care expenditures caused by
tobacco include the costs related to direct exposure to second
hand smoke, smoking-caused fires, and smokeless tobacco use.
Although these additional health expenditures certainly total
in the tens of millions of dollars in Iowa, and increase the
Iowa government's Medicaid burden, there are no good state estimates
currently available. Other non-health costs caused by tobacco
use include direct residential and commercial property losses
from fires caused by cigarettes or cigars (more than $500 million
nationwide); work productivity losses from work absences, on-the-job
performance declines, and early termination of employment caused
by tobacco-related health problems ($40+ billion per year nationwide),
and the costs of the extra cleaning and maintenance made necessary
by tobacco smoke, smokeless tobacco spit, and tobacco-related
litter (about $4+ billion per year nationwide for commercial
establishments alone). No good state-specific estimates of these
non-health costs from tobacco are available, but Iowa's pro-rata
share, based on its population, is at least $420 million per
year. |
|
Tobacco Industry Influence |
|
|
Annual tobacco industry advertising & marketing
expenditures nationwide |
$5.2 billion
|
|
Estimated portion spent for Iowa advertising
each year |
$55 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. |
