Smoking deaths not dropping much

New data show that the number of smoking-related deaths in the United States has held steady over the past several years, despite big-tobacco settlements and tax dollars that should have funneled money into states for prevention and control programs.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking caused an estimated 438,000 premature deaths and cost some $75 billion in medical costs from 1997 to 2001.

The numbers are down slightly from the CDC's 2002 report, which showed that between 1995 and 1999, smoking caused approximately 440,000 deaths and cost $53 billion in medical expenditures.

That the numbers haven't gone down with any real significance is alarming, said Beverly May, regional advocacy director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

"What happens with anything like this is, over a period of time, you want to see the numbers go down," May said. "What we're seeing is the fact that they're not. That's the important news that comes out of this."

The report does not break up smoking-related deaths by state, but according to Pat Tucker with the Utah County Health Department, approximately 1,200 Utahns die each year due to tobacco use.

Tucker, the department's tobacco prevention control coordinator, did see some positive news coming out of the CDC report.

"It shows that we still have a lot of work to do, but what we're doing is showing some reduction," she said. "In the long run, we'll start to see some of these costs go down because we are seeing the prevalence go down."

Utah has among the lowest rate of smokers in the country, with about 12 percent of adults, or 193,000 people, who smoke, May said. Still, tobacco-related medical costs in Utah total $273 million annually, or $505 per household each year.

"Even though we're low, it really throws me on how much it costs the state of Utah in health and economic costs," Tucker said.

The report indicates that cigarette smoking "continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on society." During the five years analyzed by the CDC, the economic costs of smoking topped $167 billion — the $75 billion in health-care expenses and another $92 billion in productivity losses from deaths due to smoking.

Utah spends nearly $7 million annually on tobacco prevention programs, the money generated by tax revenues, federal dollars and money from the master tobacco settlement agreement between states and tobacco companies.