Smoking Deaths Not Dropping Much
New data show that the number of smoking-related deaths in the United States has held steady over the past several years, despite big-tobacco settlements and tax dollars that should have funneled money into states for prevention and control programs.
According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking caused an estimated 438,000 premature deaths and cost some $75 billion in medical costs from 1997 to 2001.
The numbers are down slightly from the CDC’s 2002 report, which showed that between 1995 and 1999, smoking caused approximately 440,000 deaths and cost $53 billion in medical expenditures.
That the numbers haven’t gone down with any real significance is alarming, said Beverly May, regional advocacy director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
“What happens with anything like this is, over a period of time, you want to see the numbers go down,” May said. “What we’re seeing is the fact that they’re not. That’s the important news that comes out of this.”
The report does not break up smoking-related deaths by state, but according to Pat Tucker with the Utah County Health Department, approximately 1,200 Utahns die each year due to tobacco use.
Tucker, the department’s tobacco prevention control coordinator, did see some positive news coming out of the CDC report.
“It shows that we still have a lot of work to do, but what we’re doing is showing some reduction,” she said. “In the long run, we’ll start to see some of these costs go down because we are seeing the prevalence go down.”
Utah has among the lowest rate of smokers in the country, with about 12 percent of adults, or 193,000 people, who smoke, May said. Still, tobacco-related medical costs in Utah total $273 million annually, or $505 per household each year.
“Even though we’re low, it really throws me on how much it costs the state of Utah in health and economic costs,” Tucker said.
The report indicates that cigarette smoking “continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on society.” During the five years analyzed by the CDC, the economic costs of smoking topped $167 billion — the $75 billion in health-care expenses and another $92 billion in productivity losses from deaths due to smoking.
Utah spends nearly $7 million annually on tobacco prevention programs, the money generated by tax revenues, federal dollars and money from the master tobacco settlement agreement between states and tobacco companies.
“There’s no excuse for not having a well-funded tobacco prevention control program, because it saves money,” May said.
Only four states, Mississippi, Delaware, Maine and Colorado, have comprehensive programs that meet the levels recommended by the CDC, according to May.
And although Utah is not quite at the level recommended by the federal agency, both May and Tucker said the state has made great strides in prevention and control programs, especially those that target youth.
“I am very excited about what Utah has done. We certainly could use more funding, but we’re not asking for more funding,” May said. “I think the fact that we’ve been able to maintain funding and work on the programs to be successful has been really important.”
According to the report, full funding of prevention programs is the best way to reduce smoking-related deaths.
“Because investments in evidence-based prevention programs have produced larger and faster reductions in cigarette consumption, increased investments to the levels recommended by the CDC are needed to achieve a greater health impact,” the report states.
Of the estimated 438,000 deaths included in the report, nearly 40 percent were from lung cancer, 35 percent from cardiovascular disease and 25 percent from respiratory diseases.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com