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Report Shows Economic Toll of Smoking on California’s Fiscal Health

Smoking costs in California are nearly $16 billion annually, or $ 3,331 per smoker every year, according to a report by the UCSF School of Nursing Institute for Health & Aging. The healthcare costs alone would equal one-quarter of the projected state deficit, according to Wendy Max, PhD, co-director of the Institute for Health & Aging and UCSF professor of health economics. “Our study shows that even though tobacco control efforts in California are among the most successful in the nation, the cost of smoking in the state continues to increase,” said Max. “These numbers should be a wake-up call that we need to continue our efforts to reduce the health care costs, lives lost, and pain and suffering caused by smoking.”

Secret Docs Show Tobacco Industry Influence in Black America

Previously secret documents show that tobacco companies provided money, cultivated social and political ties, and aggressively offered free cigarettes to African American leadership groups ?even as the evidence grew that African Americans bear a disproportionate share of the tobacco-related disease burden, researchers at the University of California say.