Smoking is devastating Iowa's health and economic productivity. Currently Iowa has the second highest and fastest rising cancer rates in the United States. Iowa also has the 18th highest adult smoking rate.
As legislators look for policy solutions to this crisis, we believe that a comprehensive tobacco tax increase should be part of the solution. Tobacco tax increases are one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking and other tobacco use, especially among kids.
A $1.50 cigarette tax increase ensures:
The maximum public health benefits for Iowans.
The tobacco industry is unable to undermine the tax increase through coupons and discounting.
A meaningful amount of revenue for the state of Iowa helping to offset the enormous cost of tobacco use.
The Iowa Health Initiative supports Representative Barker's comprehensive tobacco tax bill, which increases the cigarette tax by $1.50 and sets the tax on e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches at 50% of the wholesale price.
Iowa
Nationally
High School Students Who Smoke
4.1%
3.8%
High School Students Who Use E-cigarettes
16.4%
18.0%
Adults Who Smoke
12.9%
9.9%
Lung cancer is one of the four cancers that have been identified as contributors to our cancer crisis.
Lung cancer accounts for 12.1% of all new cancers in Iowa.
Iowa has the 10th highest rate of new cases of lung cancer in the country.
Lung cancer accounts for 25% of all cancer deaths.
80% of lung cancer cases are caused by tobacco use.
Smoking-caused productivity losses: $3.11 billion
Annual health care costs directly caused by smoking: $1.49 billion
Medicaid spending due to smoking: $391.9 million
The tobacco industry spends $23 million every day to promote their products. The state of Iowa also spends money to keep youth from starting and to help Iowans quit. So how does Iowa’s spending stack up to that of the tobacco industry?
Annual tobacco industry marketing expenditures nationwide: $8.6 billion
Estimated industry’s marketing spending in Iowa each year: $100.8 million
Iowa's FY2026 state tobacco control funding: $3.0 million
What the state of Iowa spends to deter youth from ever using tobacco products and to help Iowans who want to quit, pales in comparison to what the industry spends to promote their products.
This is why the Iowa Health Initiative is asking that $12.3 million dollars from the revenue generated by a comprehensive tobacco tax increase is allocated to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services's tobacco prevention and cessation program.
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