Current Smokers

Indicator Definition 
Percent of adults (ages 18–64 years) who smoke cigarettes.

Adults who smoke cigarettes in Colorado4

Adults who smoke cigarettes by income in Colorado5

Indicator Significance
Cigarette smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of death worldwide. In the United States, it is responsible for one in five deaths as a result of lung cancer, pulmonary disease and ischemic heart disease. Smoking not only affects the smoker, but environmental tobacco smoke (secondhand smoke) also poses immediate risks to those exposed at work, home, and other public spaces. Secondhand smoke has been associated with increased asthma-related conditions in children as well as harm to the cardiovascular system.¹

Colorado Specifics 
More than 40 years after the Surgeon General’s landmark report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, one in five Colorado adults currently smokes cigarettes. With the rate of cigarette smoking among high school students similar to that of adults, a new generation of cigarette smokers has already been established. There is a strong relationship between cigarette smoking and income. Only 11 percent of Colorado adults with family incomes of $75,000 or more smoke, compared to 35 percent for those with family incomes below $10,000.

Promising Initiatives
In Colorado
The Colorado Clean Indoor Act was enacted in 2006 to protect the public from involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke. Amendments were recently passed in 2007 to ban smoking in assisted-living facilities and casinos. Colorado was among the first 13 states to enact such far-reaching legislation.²

Elsewhere
Massachusetts was the second state following California to implement a cigarette tax to fund a statewide tobacco control program. The Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program (MTCP) was developed to administer the public media campaign and educate the public about the health risks associated with tobacco use. The program has succeeded in decreasing cigarette consumption three times greater than the rest of the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drew from the Massachusetts and California tobacco programs to create guidelines for other states to follow.³ 

Adults who smoke cigarettes⁶

Text

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Smoking and Tobacco Use.”
   
2. Smoke-Free Colorado.
   
3. Koh HK, et al. “The First Decade of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program,” Public Health Reports; September/October 2005.
   

Charts

4. Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado Health Institute analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000–2007.
   
5. Source: Colorado Health Institute analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2007, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   
6. Source: Colorado Health Institute analysis of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2007, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.