The Costs

Economic Costs

  1. Annually, smoking costs Minnesota nearly $2 billion in health care costs.1
  2. The tobacco industry spends an estimated $196 million a year to market its products in Minnesota.2
  3. The average cost of a pack of cigarettes in Minnesota is $5.22 - while each pack smoked in Minnesota costs an estimated $8.85 in medical expenses and lost productivity.3,4

Emotional Costs

  1. Whether it’s family, friends, coworkers or neighbors – maybe even the person who means the most – tobacco use leads to over 5,500 deaths in Minnesota a year.1,9
  2. In Minnesota, 634,000 moms, dads, sons, daughters, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles continue to smoke.5
  3. Children of smokers are almost twice as likely to smoke as children of nonsmokers.6,7

Health Costs

  1. Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.8
  2. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general.8
  3. Smoking accounts for an estimated 443,000 deaths each year in the U.S. – that’s nearly one of every five deaths.9,10

Citations

1Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Health Care Costs and Smoking – The Bottom Line. 2005.

2Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The Toll of Tobacco in Minnesota Available at http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/toll.php?StateID=MN. Accessed November 5, 2009.

3Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Health Care Costs and Secondhand Smoke – The Bottom Line. 2007.

4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State Data Highlights 2006. Table 4. Smoking-Attributable Costs. Available at here. Accessed December 22, 2008.

5ClearWay MinnesotaSM, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health. Creating a Healthier Minnesota: Progress in Reducing Tobacco Use. Minneapolis: 2008.

6Bauman K, et al. Effect of parental smoking classification on the association between parental and adolescent smoking. Addictive Behaviors. 1990;15(5):413-22.

7Kalesan B, et al. The Joint Influence of Parental Modeling and Positive Parental Concern of Cigarette Smoking in Middle and High School Students. Journal of School Health. 2006; 76(8).

8U.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. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/.

9Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State-Specific Smoking Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost – United States, 2000 - 2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report [serial online]. 2009;58(2):29-33. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5802.pdf.

10Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health United States, 2003, With Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2003. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm.

There's Hope

  1. The Minnesota adult smoking rate is at an all-time low of 17% - significantly below the national average.5,11
  2. There are now 164,000 fewer adult smokers in Minnesota than in 1999.5
  3. Fewer young adults (18-24-year-olds) are smoking today. The percentage of Minnesota young adult smokers dropped from 37 percent in 2003 to 28 percent in 2007.5
  4. In October 2007, all Minnesota workplaces went smoke-free, including bars and restaurants.12
  5. A September 2008 survey found that an overwhelming 77 percent of Minnesotans support the statewide smoke-free law.13
  6. A March 2008 study found that the statewide smoke-free law significantly reduced exposure to a tobacco-specific cancer-causing chemical in nonsmoking bar and restaurant workers.14
  7. The majority of smokers in Minnesota want to quit. More than half of Minnesota adults who smoked in the past year attempted to quit during that time.5
  8. Higher tobacco prices and smoke-free policies help Minnesota smokers quit.5
  9. Every Minnesota smoker who wants to quit has access to free help through QUITPLAN® Services.15
  10. Twelve hours after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.8,16
  11. One year after quitting, your added risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker’s.8,16
  12. Ten years after quitting, your lung cancer death rate is about half that of a smoker’s. Your risk of cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.8,16

Citations

5ClearWay MinnesotaSM, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health. Creating a Healthier Minnesota: Progress in Reducing Tobacco Use. Minneapolis: 2008.

11Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, [2008]

12Minnesota Clear Indoor Air Act. 2008 Minnesota Statute – 144.411 to 144.417. Available at https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=144. Accessed January 7, 2009.

13ClearWay MinnesotaSM. As First Anniversary Approaches, Poll Finds Statewide Smoke-Free Law as Popular as Leading Minnesota Icons. Available at www.clearwaymn.org. Accessed December 30, 2008.

14University of Minnesota Cancer Center and ClearWay MinnesotaSM. Research Brief: Carcinogen and Nicotine Exposure in Hospitality Workers Before and After the Freedom to Breathe Act. 2008.

15Call 1-888-354-PLAN

8U.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. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/.

16Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Within 20 Minutes of Quitting. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/posters/20mins/. Accessed January 8, 2009.