© 2008 Coalition for a Tobacco-Free West Virgina
West Virginia has the second highest smoking rate in the nation:
27 percent. More alarmingly, about one in four teenagers
becomes addicted to tobacco before reaching adulthood.
The rate of smokeless tobacco use among West Virginia males is the highest
in the nation.
West Virginia leads the country in the percentage of women who smoke during pregnancy at 27 percent. This
is triple the national average.
The direct health care cost of cigarette smoking in our state is more than
$1 billion.
Combined
with losses in productivity, tobacco costs our state about
$2 billion per year.
The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free West Virginia
is
working to change these statistics.
