How do states differ in terms of tobacco taxes and tobacco control spending?
The tobacco tax is generally lower in many Southern/tobacco growing states, including North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, than it is in other regions. Only three states, Delaware, Colorado, and Maine, meet CDC’s minimum spending guidelines for comprehensive tobacco prevention programs for 2008. Thirty states and the District of Columbia failed to meet at least 50 percent of the CDC guidelines. How to Read This Report • How are cancer incidence and death rates presented? Cancer incidence rates and death rates are measured as the number of cases or deaths per 100,000 people per year and are age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. When a cancer affects only one sex — for example, prostate cancer — then the number is per 100,000 persons of that sex. The numbers are age-adjusted, which allows for comparison of rates from different populations with varying age composition over time a
