The average state tax on a pack of cigarettes is now $1.46 per pack, according to new fact sheets released today by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

The state and local tobacco tax factsheets to reflect the few tax changes that went into effect July 1, 2011. As of this month, Nebraska's cigarette tax rate is 64 cents per pack, ranking 38th in the country.
 
Here are the new facts:

• Overall all states’ average: $1.46 per pack
  
• Major tobacco states’ average: 48.5 cents per pack
  
• Non-tobacco states’ average: $1.59 per pack
  

As of July 1, 29 states, DC, Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, and Guam have cigarette tax rates of $1 per pack or higher; 14 states, DC, and Guam have cigarette tax rates of $2 per pack or higher; five states and Guam have cigarette tax rates of $3 per pack or higher; and one state (NY) has a cigarette tax rate more than $4 per pack.

The new fact sheets are available as a cigarette tax map and a state cigarette tax table.
 

Today is World No Tobacco Day, a day to recall how tobacco use hurts the people who use them or are exposed to them, and to look at what can be done to help people live healthier lives free of tobacco addiction.

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco takes a tremendous toll on human life. The tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of whom more than 5 million are users and ex users, and more than 600 000 are nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke.

• After high blood pressure, tobacco use is the biggest contributor to the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases — such as heart attack, stroke, cancer and emphysema — which accounts for 63% of deaths
• Smokers are more susceptible to certain communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and pneumonia
• No consumer product kills as many people and as needlessly as does tobacco. It killed 100 million people in the 20th century. Unless we act, it could kill up to 1 billion people in the 21st. All of these deaths will have been entirely preventable

What can be done in Nebraska to reduce tobacco use? A comprehensive strategy that includes reducing Nebraskans' exposure to secondhand smoke, price increases in tobacco products, and adequately funding a program to reduce tobacco use and help Nebraskans quit has been shown by research to be effective in reducing tobacco use.

The presentation above highlights what can be done to reduce tobacco use in Nebraska.

Steady declines in cigarette smoking appear to have stalled in eighth, tenth and twelfth grades after several years of improvement on most measures, according to the latest Monitoring the Future study.

Teen smoking had shown important declines in the mid-1990s. In Nebraska, teen smoking rates experienced a sharp decline between 1997 (39.2 percent) and 2009 (18.4 percent). The figure  shown here shows the trend in youth smoking rates from 1991 to 2009. This figure is from the Data and Trends on Tobacco Use in Nebraska 2010 report.

The 2010 Monitoring the Future study shows that the declines in teen smoking shown nationwide have come to a halt among younger teens in the United States. The study also shows some evidence of a possible increase in their smoking.

While the increase is not yet large enough to reach statistical significance, an increasing proportion of both 8th and 10th grade students this year said they smoked in the past 30 days or smoked daily in that period.

“Smoking is a habit that tends to stay with people for a long time, leading to ongoing differences between different graduating classes of students that persist into adulthood,” according to Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator. The Monitoring the Future study, which has been tracking teen smoking in the United States for the past 36 years, reports that past 30-day smoking among 8th graders increased from 6.5 in 2009 to 7.1 percent in 2010; among 10th graders it rose from 13.1 percent to 13.6 percent.

The study looks at about 46,000 students in nearly 400 secondary schools each year. The study is directed by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. It is funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse—one of the National Institutes of Health.

Steady declines in cigarette smoking appear to have stalled in eighth, tenth and twelfth grades after several years of improvement on most measures, according to the latest Monitoring the Future study.

Teen smoking had shown important declines in the mid-1990s. In Nebraska, teen smoking rates experienced a sharp decline between 1997 (39.2 percent) and 2009 (18.4 percent.) The figure shown here shows the trend in youth smoking rates from 1991 to 2009.  This figure is from the Data and Trends on Tobacco Use in Nebraska 2010 report.

The 2010 Monitoring the Future study shows that the declines in teen smoking shown nationwide have come to a halt among younger teens in the United States. The study also shows some evidence of a possible increase in their smoking.

While the increase is not yet large enough to reach statistical significance, an increasing proportion of both 8th and 10th grade students this year said they smoked in the past 30 days or smoked daily in that period.

“Smoking is a habit that tends to stay with people for a long time, leading to ongoing differences between different graduating classes of students that persist into adulthood,” according to Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator. The Monitoring the Future study, which has been tracking teen smoking in the United States for the past 36 years, reports that past 30-day smoking among 8th graders increased from 6.5 in 2009 to 7.1 percent in 2010; among 10th graders it rose from 13.1 percent to 13.6 percent. 

The study looks at about 46,000 students in nearly 400 secondary schools each year. The study is directed by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. It is funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse—one of the National Institutes of Health.