Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States.  Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.  Smoking and tobacco use costs Connecticut over two billion dollars a year in health care expenditures alone; the proportion of cancer deaths in Connecticut attributable to smoking is 27%.  

Outreach is performed from time to time to target specific populations of tobacco users; for example for the period from 2019-2023 residents with low socioeconomic status and blue collar workers are targeted with social media ads; the lower the income and the lower the educational status, the more likely people are to use tobacco products.

Overall decline has occurred due to the increased cost of cigarettes and passage of clean indoor air laws, as well as usage of other forms of tobacco.

Note: New BRFSS weighting and survey methodologies began in 2011 and include data collected from cellular telephones. These rates are not comparable to rates from 2010 and earlier.

The target was developed as Live Healthy Connecticut, A Coordinated Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Plan.

These data are current as of December 2022.  New data will be made available in the Fall of 2023.

Potential Partners
Connecticut Department of Public Health; Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services;
Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs; State Department of Education; Connecticut Department of
Correction; State Legislature; local public health agencies; health care providers including nurses and primary care
physicians, community health centers, and hospitals; health professional associations; health insurers;
pharmaceutical companies; American Cancer Society; American Heart and Lung Associations; other organizations
and coalitions focused on tobacco control; community service providers; philanthropic and research organizations
that address tobacco control and tobacco related diseases; faith-based organizations; and others.

CDC has developed evidence-based strategies that have been proven to reduce the rate of tobacco use.   States received some funding toward implementing these strategies, identified below.

Strategies that especially target those with low socioeconomic status, who use tobacco at higher rates than those with higher incomes, include access and use of evidence-based tobacco use cessation services and adoption of policies that protect exposure to secondhand smoke and aerosol especially in multi unit housing and workplaces.

Advocate for insurance coverage for smoking cessation and insurance incentives for nonsmokers; higher taxes on all tobacco products; greater Tobacco Trust Fund allocations for education, prevention, and cessation on tobacco use; and legislation to prohibit smoking in cars with children

Include smoking and tobacco use in the health education curriculum for all schools, K-12

Engage stakeholders through regular communications including a tobacco newsletter and ongoing training opportunities; Educate parents about the dangers of secondhand smoke to children; Encourage pediatricians to discuss smoking cessation/prevention with parents and teens

Develop and maintain statewide education efforts to extend state and federally funded media campaigns; Enlist youth as consumers to develop, test, and evaluate smoking prevention/cessation strategies, campaigns, etc.

Increase smoke-free environments on campuses, school grounds, recreational areas and state parks, etc.

Implement evidence-based, comprehensive smoking prevention and cessation programs in community and workplace settings, especially in urban areas; Offer cessation resources such as the tobacco use cessation telephone Quitline, available through 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) or 1-855-DEJELO.YA for Spanish.

Work with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services on limiting youth access to tobacco products.

Provide education on the benefits of smoke free/tobacco free policies, and offer technical assistance for those adopting voluntary policies (e.g., multi-unit housing complexes, workplaces, and school, college and university campuses).

Initiate and support policy and systems changes that would reduce access to and availability of tobacco products.

Explore and respond to emerging potential health threats such as e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.