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The Real Costs of Tobacco to Wisconsin

Regardless of who purchases cigarettes in Wisconsin, every person pays. Smoking continues to take a toll on the people of Wisconsin – both on their health and on their wallets.

7,300 adults in Wisconsin die each year due to their own smoking and over 1,000 Wisconsinites die every year as a result of secondhand smoke. Every resident of Wisconsin pays approximately $300 as a result of smoking. These facts and the staggering statistics listed below are reason enough to continue the fight against the death and disease caused by tobacco.

Economic

• $1.6 billion of the annual health care expenditures in Wisconsin are directly related to tobacco use⁴,⁵

• Smoking costs approximately $300 for every man, woman and child in Wisconsin³

• Every pack of cigarettes costs each individual $7.14⁶

• The tobacco-related costs of lost productivity each year because of missed days, more breaks and early death is $1.41 billion⁷

• The state of Wisconsin covers $422 million in tobacco-related costs to the Medicaid program⁸

Health

• Over 35,000 Wisconsin children become addicted to tobacco every year⁹, and one-third of those children will die prematurely from the addiction¹⁰

• 136,000 kids now under 18 and alive today in Wisconsin will ultimately die prematurely from smoking⁴

• 7,300 adults in Wisconsin die each year due to their own smoking¹

• Smoking is responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases (90% in men, 82% in women)¹¹ and thus we have a cure for lung cancer – stopping people from starting to smoke

• Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women⁴

• At least one-third of all cancer deaths and one-fifth of deaths overall in the US are attributed to tobacco each year⁴

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking Attributable Morbidity, Mortality and Economic Costs (SAMMEC): Adult SAMMEC software. Calculation was performed on January 24, 2002.
²Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Toll of Tobacco In Wisconsin factsheet.
³Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Toll of Tobacco In Wisconsin factsheet.
⁴Wisconsin Tobacco Facts, Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Health Services, November 2000.
⁵Direct health care costs of smoking were calculated using Adult SAMMEC software. The software used 1998 state personal health care expenditure data from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 
⁶From U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), "Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lose, and Economic Costs - United States 1995-1999," MMWR, April 11, 2002, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5114a2.htm. CDC, State Highlights 2002: Impact and Opportunity, April 2002, http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/StateHighlights.htm.
⁷Wisconsin Tobacco Facts, Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Health Services, November 2000.
⁸Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Toll of Tobacco In Wisconsin factsheet.
⁹Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
¹⁰Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Tobacco Surveillance—United States, 2000
¹¹Thun, M., "Mixed progress against lung cancer," Tobacco Control 7:223-226 (1998).

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