BIG TOBACCO IS STILL POISONOUS. WE CAN FIGHT BACK.
Big Tobacco is still out there — just as dangerous, just as aggressive.
We all know the truth: Smoking causes cancer, tobacco companies are still modifying cigarettes to deliver powerfully addictive amounts of nicotine (“a poison,” the CEO of Brown & Williamson once called it) and Big Tobacco is still reaping profits.
That quote is the truth they won’t tell you: Tobacco’s still poisonous, and it’s still costing Oklahomans their money, health and lives every year.
Here’s what they’re taking from us, and how we can try and get it back.
Money:
Tobacco costs, whether you’re buying the products or not.
Cigarettes and tobacco products constantly go up in price — and manufacturers keep making their products more powerfully addictive — so tobacco users themselves are constantly giving more and more of their money to Big Tobacco.
WalletHub recently calculated what a lifetime of smoking costs one person financially.
Their formula is simple:
Out-of-pocket costs: the cost of one pack of cigarettes per day for 48 years.
Opportunity costs: what all that money would return if invested in the S&P 500 instead.
Health-care costs: paying for tobacco-related health issues.
Income loss: money lost in workplace productivity or absenteeism due to tobacco use.
Other costs: the extra amount tobacco users pay for health insurance, homeowner’s insurance and other necessities.
In Oklahoma, a tobacco user loses out on $1,531,415 over the course of a lifetime.
Think of what anyone could do with an extra $1.5 million.
Tobacco users aren’t the only people Big Tobacco’s taking from, though.
The American Cancer Society estimates that every Oklahoma household pays $1,057 per year on average for smoking-related government expenditures — whether anyone smokes in the household or not.
Then there’s the $1,088,000,000 (that’s more than $1 billion) Oklahomans pay in direct health care costs every year for smoking-related issues, with more than $238,000,000 coming out of Medicaid.
That’s millions stripped from Oklahoma’s economy and sent straight to Big Tobacco. It’s time to reclaim what’s ours.
Health:
Tobacco companies leave a human cost wherever they go.
A cost that measures itself in terms like COPD, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Tobacco doesn’t discriminate. It destroys every part of the body.
That shows in the health of Oklahomans.
COPD: Oklahoma has the second-highest rate of death in America from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) —168 per 100,000 people, or more than 1 per every 1,000 residents. The leading cause of COPD (which also encompasses emphysema and chronic bronchitis) is smoking.
Heart disease: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Oklahoma, killing more people every year than lung cancer — and smoking helps to cause it. As of 2020, Oklahoma also had the second-highest rate of heart disease per 100,000 people in America.
Diabetes: Smoking causes and worsens Type 2 diabetes. In Oklahoma, 12.6% of the adult population — more than 390,000 people — have been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetic Oklahomans pay more than twice as much in medical costs as non-diabetic Oklahomans do.
Smoking-Related Cancers:
Smoking causes around one out of every three cancer deaths in Oklahoma (34.2%).
Those numbers cut across every demographic.
In a study conducted between 2001 and 2021, Native Americans held the highest rates of smoking-related cancers among both 20 to 49-year-old adults and 50 to 64-year-old adults.
Who led the 64-and-older cohort in smoking-related cancers? White adults.
Tobacco is killing Oklahomans in incredibly high numbers — around 7,500 deaths in Oklahoma every year. Let’s start bringing those numbers down today.
Family:
Here’s the unseen cost — and it’s the one that cuts the deepest.
There’s a big difference between the family member you know and the family member you’ve only heard stories about — because they died from a tobacco-related illness.
Big Tobacco takes parents from their kids.
Uncles and aunts from nieces and nephews.
It takes the spouses, partners, children and family of tobacco users, too: Nationally, secondhand smoke causes nearly 34,000 heart disease deaths every year and increases the risk of stroke between 20 and 30%.
There are grandparents and great-grandparents you could’ve met but didn’t, because of tobacco.
There are children who will have respiratory problems from secondhand smoke — still full of more than 250 poisonous chemicals — and babies born underweight from pregnant mothers who smoke.
All of the 7,500 Oklahomans who die yearly from smoking-related conditions have families. People who love them and miss them. Big Tobacco depends on replacement customers, however, so Oklahomans will continue to suffer.
What can we do?
When you’re up against international conglomerates, keeping your spirits up can be hard. But you have the power and agency to make important changes. Here’s what you can do in your community to fight Big Tobacco:
Help one person at a time: Let the people in your life who use tobacco know that there are professionals ready to help them quit today with FREE nicotine patches, gum, lozenges and Coaching. Taking the first step is always difficult, but they’re not alone. The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline is there for them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Contact your officials: In Oklahoma, it’s still legal to smoke in cars with children present. Your elected officials can do something about that. Find your officials and their contact info here.
Create smoke-free places: Breathe Easy is a program that aids organizations in adopting tobacco-free policies and promoting the tobacco-free status of their business, campus, congregation, multi-unit housing complex or other organization. They’re available as a resource for anyone looking to improve their immediate environment.
It can seem daunting, but remember: every step forward — every life saved, every policy passed and every new place declared smoke free — is a step back from Big Tobacco’s grip. A step away from our bodies, away from our lives and away from Oklahoma.