Americans buy fewest cigarettes since 1951
The perils of cigarettes have burned smoking out of public favor.
The number of cigarettes sold to Americans last year — 378 billion — was lower than in any year since 1951, despite a doubling in the U.S. population since that time, the National Association of Attorneys General says in a new report.
The group analyzed federal data on cigarette sales and found a 4.2 percent drop last year, continuing an eight-year decline that dates to the legal settlements Iowa and other states reached with big tobacco companies in 1998. Since then, smoking has dropped 21 percent.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, co-chairman of the association's tobacco committee, touted the drop as "a huge public health success." He called it evidence that higher cigarette costs, strict limits on tobacco advertising to youth, and quit-smoking campaigns work. States have spent part of the money received from tobacco companies to launch those campaigns.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, however, issued a report last year that found most states do not spend as much on anti-tobacco programs as the federal government recommends. Iowa spent about $5.6 million, or about a third as much as recommended, according to the nonprofit group's report.
Tobacco-Free Kids ranked Iowa 30th among states in its spending. It concluded that Iowa and other states are reliant on cigarette tax revenue and can't afford to cut tobacco sales dramatically.
But Miller said the new report shows the opposite.
"The continuing long-term decline shows that we are winning the battle against cigarette smoking," he said.
Tobacco nevertheless remains the nation's leading cause of preventable death, killing more than 400,000 Americans each year.
One in five Iowans still smokes, and the Iowa Department of Public Health estimates smoking costs the state about $617 million every year in medical bills and lost earnings.
