Tobacco Control Program

The Burden of Tobacco Use  

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.

9,800 Missourians died in 2006 from tobacco-related illness each year. 28 Missourians die each day from a smoking related illness….that is more that one person each hour! Tobacco use costs lives and money. Missouri spends over two billion dollars ($2.13 billion in ’06) annually to treat smoking-related illness ($512 million to Medicaid in ’05).

In Missouri, both the adult smoking rate (23.3% in ’06) and the high school smoking rate (23.7% in ’05) are among the highest in the U.S., Jefferson County’s smoking rate is 32.3% (2003 County Level Study) compared to the state rate of 23.3%.  For Missouri the tobacco use rate is especially high among youth, the tobacco use rate is 30.7% in ’07 when all forms of tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless, etc.) are considered. Missouri’s pregnancy smoking rates are high enough (18.2% in ’02) to rank them in the top ten (8th in ’02) in the nation.