LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Looks like Michigan has earned another top spot on a national list – this time for having a lot of smokers. No, not the kind you throw some pork brisket into. Michigan has earned top (actually more like bottom) honors as being a state with a high number of smokers.

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Truth Initiative, America’s largest nonprofit public health organization committed to making tobacco use and nicotine addiction a thing of the past, has done an analysis to find the states with the highest number of tobacco users and Michigan is part of what they call “Tobacco Nation” – an area in the Midwest where smoking prevalence is 50% higher than the rest of the country.

Tobacco Nation includes 12 states that spans Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.

In their report “Tobacco Nation: A call to eliminate geographic smoking disparities in the U.S.” Truth Initiative says that both adults and young adults have a 50% higher smoking prevalence and smoke many more cigarettes per capita annually than people living in other states (on average 53 vs. 29 packs).

The report says, “That means a smoker living in Tobacco Nation could smoke nearly 500 more cigarettes per year than the average smoker in the rest of the U.S.”

The report goes on to say, “This persistently high prevalence of cigarette use, still the country’s leading cause of preventable death and disease, has serious consequences, especially at a time when life expectancy has declined for Americans due to a variety of factors including COVID-19 and opioid overdoses.”

They report “Tobacco Nation residents live shorter lives and face a higher risk of dying than other Americans, with an average life expectancy of 76 years compared to 79 years in the rest of the country. Tobacco Nation’s greater rates of smoking-attributable death and disease compared to the rest of the U.S. likely contribute to this lower life expectancy.”

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To solve this crisis, the report says that more tobacco policy spending paired with higher cigarette taxes to targeted areas with the highest smoking prevalence can reduce disparities in tobacco use. They say that in bringing the tobacco use in Tobacco Nation down to the national average, it would result in considerable health and economic benefits with fewer cancer cases, fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths attributed to smoking saving billions in smoking-attributable medical costs and increasing productivity.

The good news is that overall, tobacco use has significantly declined in the United States with high school student smoking prevalence dropping from 28% in 2000 to 2% in 2022. The report says that much of the decline is likely due to tobacco policy efforts, including price increases, smoke-free air laws, youth access restrictions, mass media public education and prevention campaigns.

The report says that with more than 67 million residents in Tobacco Nation, the 12 states include roughly 21% of the U.S. population but represent more than 28% of all adult current smokers in the country. They add, “When compared to the rest of the U.S., residents of Tobacco Nation states are less educated, not as financially well-off, and less likely to be employed, especially in white-collar jobs – trends we noted in our first Tobacco Nation report that remain true today.”

Ain’t that a drag.