Report: Wisconsin Lags In Smoking Prevention

Across the country smoking has dipped to 15 percent. But the percentage of adults who smoke in Wisconsin is still higher than the national average.

About 17 percent of adults in Wisconsin smoke and 8 percent of high schoolers use tobacco, according to an annual report issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Action Network, American Lung Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report ranks states according to their spending on anti-tobacco programs. Wisconsin comes in at 32 out of 50.

“Most states are nowhere near where they need to be but when you have so many states like Wisconsin that are under 10 percent its clearly failing miserably and providing funding for prevention and cessation,” said John Schacter, director of state communications for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Few states come close to spending what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, but there are exceptions. Alaska spends 93 percent of what the CDC recommends. California spends 94 percent.

“California this year is going to be spending $325 million on tobacco prevention. They passed a ballot initiative in 2016 to raise the state’s tobacco tax by $2 a pack and then devote 13 percent of that to prevention,” said Schacter.

California’s tax went from less than $1 a pack to $2.87. That $2 increase was the largest any state has taken at one time, says Schacter.

In Wisconsin, the tax on a pack of cigarettes is $2.52 . Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle boosted it from $1.77 to $2.52 in 2009, and it hasn’t budged since.

In addition to higher taxes on tobacco products, the group also supports raising the age for buying tobacco to 21. The current legal age to purchase tobacco products in the state is 18. Like other states, Wisconsin has expanded the prohibition to e-cigarettes, which contain nicotine but not tobacco.

Adileen Sii of Wisconsin Rapids became an anti-tobacco youth advocate in high school after seeing her father struggle to quit smoking. Now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has pushed for the flagship university to join other tobacco-free campuses around the state.

Sii would also like e-cigarettes included in Wisconsin’s smoke-free law, currently they are not.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a majority of states including Wisconsin, exempt e-cigarettes from state clean indoor air laws. While there is no state law limiting where vaping can occur, there have been attempts to limit access. The state senate has passed a bill to move e-cigarettes and flavored cigars behind store counters, but it has yet to be taken up by the Assembly.