In case you missed the memo: Smoking is seriously deadly.
Yesterday, the American Lung Association released its 16th annual “State of Tobacco Control” report, which evaluates nationwide smoking trends and assigns letter grades to each state based upon tobacco prevention and cessation initiatives.
The good news? Smoking rates are declining in the U.S. In 2016, 16.4 percent of adults smoked cigarettes — that’s about 39 million people.
The bad news? The rates of decline vary according to what state you live in — and it looks like a lot of states miss the mark.
The lowest-scoring states were Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. All of these states scored F’s in all five categories: Tobacco Prevention Funding, Smoke-free Air, Tobacco Taxes, Access to Cessation, and Tobacco 21 (a campaign to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products to 21.)
While no state received straight-As, the top performers were California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Vermont were the top performing.
You can search by state here. How did yours do?
