Tobacco Costs

Tobacco is still a problem across Minnesota including here in central Minnesota. Tobacco use costs all Minnesotans a lot and the staggering facts below show the dramatic impact of smoking on Minnesotans.

Health Costs

  • Adults who die each year from their own smoking:
    • 6,300
  • Kids now under 18 and alive in Minnesota who will ultimately die prematurely from smoking:
    • 102,000
  • Proportion of cancer deaths in Minnesota attributed to smoking:
    • 26.7%

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.

Economic Costs*

  • Annual health care costs in Minnesota directly caused by smoking - $2.51 billion
  • Medicaid costs caused by smoking in Minnesota - $563.2 million
  • Smoking-caused health costs and productivity losses per pack sold in Minnesota - $19.16 per/pack
  • Smoking-caused productivity losses in Minnesota - $1.54 billion

*Amounts do not include health costs caused by exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking-caused fires, smokeless tobacco use, or cigar and pipe smoking. Tobacco use also imposes additional costs such as workplace productivity losses and damage to property.

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