For more information contact:
Joseph Thornton, Media Coordinator/Public Information
Specialist
Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs
West Virginia Department of health and Human Resources
Phone: 304-558-7899 Fax:
304-558-7075
Cell: 304-546-7960 e-mail:
josephthornton@wvdhhr.org
For immediate release
More than one-quarter of the adults in West Virginia are smokers. Nearly two out of every five (349 percent) high school students are current smokers, and approximately one-third (33 percent) have smoked on a daily basis during at least one 30-day period in their lives. This indicates these students are becoming addicted to tobacco before ever reaching adulthood.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has released the 2001 finding on smoking and tobacco use in the state. The recent update of Tobacco is Killing (and Costing) Us, a report on tobacco use rates, smoking-related deaths and smoking-related health care costs in West Virginia, continues to provide the latest data and most current information regarding the damaging effects of tobacco on the citizens of this state.
Indicative of the toll tobacco is taking is the fact the number of deaths attributed to smoking statewide is more than 4,200 per year, a figure that represents the killing of 12 West Virginians every day from cigarette smoking. More than one in five deaths in West Virginia is caused by smoking. These deaths are the result of lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and asthma. These conditions generally occur because of the extremely damaging health consequences of cigarettes.
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The rate of smokeless tobacco use among West Virginia males are also among the highest in the nation. For the year 2000, the West Virginia smokeless tobacco use rate of 18 percent among adult males was greater than twice the median rate for the 18 states that were surveyed. The smokeless tobacco use rate among males ages 15-19 was 26 percent, again over twice the national median (12 percent) for this age group.
In addition to the 4, 200 deaths and tobacco-related chronic diseases suffered by thousands of others in the state, the direct health care costs of cigarette smoking in the state of West Virginia are staggering. In dollars, it costs the state between $670 million and $897 million in direct care costs to deal with the results of cigarette use in the population.
The report provides the reader with data on West Virginia’s tobacco use rates, deaths due to smoking and calculated direct health care costs of smoking in our state. While the data are estimates, they are conservative and do not take into account indirect health care costs, indirect costs from lost productivity or costs associated with secondhand smoke. This report is one of many tools and data products developed by the Department of Health and Human Resources to help educate our state’s youth, legislators and citizens about the risks, costs and health consequences resulting from WestVirginia’s high prevalence of tobacco use. Tobacco is Killing (and Costing) Us is available in hard copy by calling the West Virginia Tobacco Prevention Program at (304) 558-0644 or on-line at http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/hsc/tobkill
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