Is tobacco use a big problem in North Dakota?
Yes. Each year 900 N.D. residents die from smoking, and 800 youth become new daily smokers. Of youth now smoking, one in three will eventually die from their smoking. One in 5 adults in North Dakota smoke, a rate basically unchanged for a more than a decade. While North Dakota’s youth smoking rate recently dropped from its peak as one of the highest rates in the nation, this reduction has leveled off, leaving more than 1 in 5 kids (21%) still smoking, and 1 in 5 high school males (20%) using spit tobacco. An estimated 42,000 kids are exposed to secondhand smoke at home. Currently, no indicators point to either N.D. adult or youth tobacco use rates dropping significantly.
