Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S., killing over 393,000 people each year.

Secondhand smoke kills almost 50,000 people each year.

27 states have passed laws prohibiting smoking in almost all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

New York has the highest cigarette tax in the country at $4.35 per pack.

Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the country at 17 cents per pack.

Alaska is the only state that funds its tobacco control programs at or above the CDC-recommended level (in Fiscal Year 2012).

Only 2 states approved increases in their cigarette taxes in 2011 and neither increase was significant enough to protect public health.

No states passed a comprehensive smokefree workplace in 2011.  Nevada actually weakened its law.

6 states – Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – offer comprehensive cessation benefits to tobacco users on Medicaid.

2 states – Alabama and Georgia – offer virtually no help with quitting to most tobacco users on Medicaid.

In 2009, the American Lung Association played a key role in the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products.

The American Lung Association played a key role in airplanes becoming smokefree in the 1990s.

43 states and the District of Columbia spend less than half of what the CDC recommends on their state tobacco control programs.

Each day, almost 3,900 kids under 18 try their first cigarette and more than 1,000 kids become new, regular smokers.

Smoking costs the U.S. economy $193 billion dollars each year, $96 billion in direct health care costs and $97 billion in lost productivity.

The five largest cigarette companies spent over $27 million dollars a day marketing their products in 2008.

The American Lung Association has been fighting smoking and tobacco use since the 1950s.

Smoking rates for Medicaid recipients are over 60 percent higher than the general population.

Only 4 states – Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming – fund their quitlines at CDC-recommended levels.

A recent study of Washington state’s tobacco prevention program shows that the state saved $5 for every $1 invested from 2000-2009.

A recent study of Massachusetts’ comprehensive Medicaid quit smoking benefit found that it saved $3 for every $1 spent in just over a year.