What's New

Tobacco Disparities Dashboard

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health recently launched the Tobacco Disparities Dashboard. The interactive dashboard turns data into visual information, enabling users to quickly explore and identify tobacco-related disparities in cigarette smoking among specific groups at the state level by age, disability, education, employment, income, mental health, race and ethnicity, sex, and locality (urban vs rural). The information can help guide interventions to reduce cigarette smoking among specific groups.

Visit the Tobacco Disparities Dashboard to explore data specific to Alabama.

Alabama State Plan for Tobacco Prevention and Control 2024-2029

The new Alabama State Plan for Tobacco Prevention and Control, which outlines planned efforts to reduce tobacco use among Alabama youth and adults and to reduce everyone's exposure to secondhand smoke, is now available online.

• Alabama State Plan for Tobacco Prevention and Control 2024-2029

National Youth Tobacco Survey

• According to the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS), more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students --- about 1 in 10 --- reported current (past 30-day) use of e-cigarettes.
• According to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey (YTS), 9.3 percent of students reported current (past 30-day) use of a tobacco product: 13.4 percent of high school students (approximately 2.06 million) and 4 percent (approximately 4.0 percent) of middle school students surveyed.

Tobacco & Opioids: An Evaluation

Tobacco users who also struggle with other substance use disorders tend to smoke more heavily, experience greater difficulty quitting, and face a higher risk of death from smoking related causes. View our fact sheet, Tobacco & Opioids: An Evaluation, for more information on the link between tobacco use and opioid misuse.

Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General

Dr. Jerome M. Adams, Surgeon General of the United States, has released "Smoking Cessation - A Report of The Surgeon General." This report summarizes the latest evidence on the health benefits of cessation. Key findings include:

• Cessation is beneficial at any age.
• Cessation can add as much as a decade to life expectancy.
• Cessation reduces risk for many adverse health effects, and is beneficial to those diagnosed with heart disease and COPD.

For a full summary of the reports key findings, visit the Office of the Surgeon General. The full report is now available online.

Quit Lying

The American Heart Association is calling out Big Tobacco and Big Vape on their lies, and they're asking students, teachers, parents, school boards and city councils to join them. Learn more about their #QuitLying movement at quitlying.org. 

Tobacco Minimum Age Raised to 21

On December 20, 2019, President Donald Trump signed legislation to raise the federal minimum age of sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 years. It is now illegal for retailers to sell any tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes, to anyone under the age of 21. Prior to this change, the minimum age to buy tobacco products in Alabama was 19. Read our full news release on the change.

American Lung Association State of Tobacco Control Report

The American Lung Association has released its 17th Annual State of Tobacco Control Report --- see how Alabama stacks up against other states in the use of statewide policies designed to prevent and reduce tobacco use.

CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Smoke-Free and Tobacco-Free Policies in Colleges and Universities

The CDC and the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation (ANRF) analyzed data from ANRF's College Campus Tobacco Policy Database to determine the number of college and university campuses nationwide that were smoke-free (completely prohibitied smoking) or tobacco-free (completely prohibited both smokeless tobacco use and combustible tobacco product smoking) in all indoor and outdoor areas. In 2017, among the 2,032 campuses with smoke-free policies, 84 percent were tobacco-free. By comparison, of the 774 smoke-free campuses in 2013, 73 percent were tobacco-free. Given that 99 percent of adult cigarette smokers first start smoking before age 26 years and many smokers transition to regular, daily use during young adulthood, colleges and universities are an important venue for having policies that protect students, faculty, staff, and guests from secondhand smoke exposure.

Visit the CDC to see the full study.

Tips From Former Smokers®

Tips From Former Smokers® Spokesperson Tiffany participated in a news conference with State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris. Video of the news conference is now available on demand. Read more about Tips From Former Smokers.

Business Has Never Been Healthier

Bar and restaurant owners and operators in communities across Alabama were concerned about how local non-smoking ordinances would affect their businesses. They were pleased to find no harm to business after the bans were implemented. Watch the video and read more Tobacco Success Stories.

Study Finds Workers Exposed to Very Unhealthy Levels of Pollution in Worksites Allowing Smoking

Employees of Gadsden and Montgomery bars and restaurants that allow smoking are breathing very unhealthy amounts of pollution because of exposure to secondhand smoke, according to a recent study. Read press releases: "Study Finds Workers Exposed to Very Unhealthy Levels of Pollution in Worksites Allowing Smoking" for Gadsden and Montgomery. The air quality monitoring study was funded by a grant from the Office on Smoking and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read the air quality monitoring study reports: AQM Report for Gadsden released by the the Etowah County Tobacco-Free Coalition and AQM Report for Montgomery released by the Montgomery Tobacco Free Task Force.

Heathy Campus ToolKit

The Alabama Department of Public Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and Nutrition and Physical Activity Division have developed and released a Healthy Campus ToolKit. The toolkit is designed to assist Wellness Committees in developing and implementing practices that make healthy choices the easy choices. Topics addressed include forming Wellness Committees and some of the practices they may adopt, such as healthy vending machines, tobacco-free campuses, and steps to follow for meetings and functions.