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Fast Facts

• Morbidity and Mortality Related to Tobacco Use
• Tobacco-Related Costs and Expenditure in the United States
• Tobacco Use in the United States
• References

Morbidity and Mortality Related to Tobacco Use

• Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year.¹
• Current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.¹
• Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.²
• In the United States, cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually, or about 438,000 deaths per year.³
• An estimated 38,000 of these deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure.³
• On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.²
• For every person who dies of a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.⁴
• Cigarette smoking increases the length of time that people live with a disability by about 2 years.⁵

Tobacco-Related Costs and Expenditure in the United States

• Annually, cigarette smoking costs more than $193 billion, based on lost productivity (more than $97 billion) and health care expenditures (more than $96 billion).³
• Health care costs associated with exposure to secondhand smoke average $10 billion annually.⁶
• In 2005, the latest year with available data, the cigarette industry spent almost $13.11 billion, or more than $36 million per day, on advertising and promotional expenses.⁷
• States spend less than 3% of the $24.9 billion available to them from tobacco excise taxes and tobacco industry legal settlements on preventing and controlling tobacco use, although investing only 6.4% of these funds would allow every state tobacco control program to be funded at CDC-recommended minimum levels.⁸

Tobacco Use in the United States

• Nearly 21% of U.S. adults (45.3 million people) are current cigarette smokers.⁹
• Prevalence of cigarette smoking is highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives (32.4%), followed by African Americans (23.0%), whites (21.9%), Hispanics (15.2%), and Asians [excluding Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders](10.4%).⁹
• In the United States, 23% of high school students are current cigarette smokers.¹⁰
• Each day, about 1,300 persons younger than 18 years of age become regular smokers; that is, they begin smoking on a daily basis.¹¹
• Among adult smokers, 70% report that they want to quit completely,¹² and more than 40% try to quit each year.⁹

References

1. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2008 [cited 2008 Mar 21]. Available from: http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses—United States, 1997–2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2005;54 [cited 2006 Sep 23]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5425a1.htm.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs—2007. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; October 2007. [cited 2008 Mar 21]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tobacco_control_programs/stateandcommunity/
   best_practices/index.htm.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking-Attributable Morbidity—United States, 2000. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2003;52(35) [cited 2006 Sep 23]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5235a4.htm.
5. Nusselder WJ, Looman CWN, Marang-van de Mheen PJ, van de Mheen H, Mackenbachet JP. Smoking and the Compression of Morbidity. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2000;54:566–74.
6. Behan DF, Eriksen MP, Lin Y. Economic Effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke Report [paper on the Internet]. Schaumburg, IL: Society of Actuaries; 2005 [cited 2006 Sep 23]. Available from: http://www.soa.org/ccm/content/areas-of-practice/life-insurance
   /research/economic-effects-of-environmental-tobacco-smoke-SOA/.
7. Federal Trade Commission. Cigarette Report for 2004 and 2005. (PDF–880K) Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission; 2007 [cited 2007 Apr 26]. Available from: http://www.ftc.gov/reports/tobacco/2007cigarette2004-2005.pdf.
8. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement Nine Years Later. (PDF–1.82MB) Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids; 2007 [updated 2007 Dec 12; cited 2008 Mar 21]. Available from: http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/2008/fullreport.pdf.
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2007;56(44):1157–1161 [cited 2008 Mar 21]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5644a2.htm.
10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Use Among High School Students—United States, 1991–2005. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2006;55(26) [cited 2006 Sep 23]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5526a2.htm.
11. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (PDF–1.41MB): (Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-32, DHHS Publication No. SMA 07–4293). Rockville, MD [cited 2008 Mar 21]. Available from: http://oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k6nsduh/2k6results.pdf.
12. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cigarette Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2000. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2002;51:642–5 [cited 2006 Sep 23]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5129a3.htm.

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