Smoking is big business in the United States. Almost 250 billion cigarettes are sold every year to smokers, totaling more than $228 billion in sales.
But these figures only show one part of tobacco’s economic impact as smoking-related illnesses in the U.S. cost more than $300 billion a year, including both direct medical care and lost productivity.
Not all communities are impacted equally by the harm caused by smoking. While smoking rates have fallen significantly in recent decades, disparities remain regarding the LGBTQ+ community. National Health Information Survey data shows that one in five LGB adults report being current cigarette smokers (transgender identity was not specifically recorded in the survey). Only around 14 percent of non-LGB adults were current smokers.
“The fact that we have some of the highest smoking rates of any disparity population makes us particularly concerned, not just about cancer, but actually about all the other negative effects related to smoking, like heart disease and everything all the way down to diabetes,” explains Scout, executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network.
Finbarr Toesland – Edge Media Network – 2021-12-11.