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State Laws on
Tobacco Control—United States, 1998
June 25, 1999 / Vol. 48 / No. SS–3
On Friday, June 25, 1999, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summary, "State Laws on Tobacco Control--United
States, 1998." The report covers new tobacco legislation relating to smoke-free
indoor air, minors’ access to tobacco, tobacco advertising, and tobacco taxes
effective through December 31, 1998. It also provides a complete update to a previous
surveillance summary on state tobacco laws published in November 1995. The report shows
that progress has been made in implementing laws that protect youth from the dangers of
tobacco use (minors’ access, vending machine laws, and excise taxes). But this report
shows little progress has been made in protecting citizens from secondhand smoke and in
repealing preemptive tobacco control laws.
Other study findings include
- Worksites: Twenty states
and the District of Columbia limit smoking in private worksites. Of these states, only one
(California) meets the nation's Healthy People 2000 objective to eliminate exposure to
environmental tobacco smoke by either banning indoor smoking or limiting it to separately
ventilated areas. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have laws restricting
smoking in state government worksites, but only 13 of these states meet the nation's
Healthy People 2000 objective. Currently, 28 states and D.C. limit smoking in commercial
day care centers, and 22 meet the Healthy People 2000 objective. Five states (Hawaii,
Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, and Tennessee) have strengthened their smoke-free
indoor air laws since the 1995 report.
- Minors' Access: All
states prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors. Twenty-three states and D.C. may
suspend or revoke a retail tobacco products license for violation of youth access laws.
Since the 1995 report, 11 states have added license suspension or revocation, or both,
penalties for sales to minors; however, one state removed license suspension and
revocation as possible penalties. Forty-one states and D.C. have restrictions on cigarette
vending machines. Nineteen states and D.C. meet the Healthy People 2000 objective to ban
cigarette vending machines in areas accessible to minors, an increase of eight states
since the 1995 report.
- Excise Taxes: All states
have an excise tax on cigarettes. As of December 31, 1998, the average tax was 38.9 cents
per pack and ranged from 2.5 cents per pack in Virginia to one dollar per pack in Alaska
and Hawaii. Only 42 states have an excise tax on smokeless tobacco products, and many tax
these products at a per-pack rate much lower than that for cigarettes. Thirteen states
increased their cigarette tax since the 1995 report; increases ranged from 12 cents in New
Hampshire to 71 cents in Alaska.
- Preemptive Laws: More
than half of all states (30 states) have preemption provisions in their tobacco control
laws. Six states have passed preemptive laws since the 1995 report. Of these, Indiana and
Maine did not have previous preemptive laws in any area tracked in the report. However,
Maine repealed its preemptive law as of June 1997. Preemptive legislation is defined as
legislation that prevents a local jurisdiction from enacting laws more stringent than, or
at a variance with, what the state law mandates.
Information on state laws is updated
quarterly and can be accessed through a new CDC online information database, the State Tobacco Activities Tracking and
Evaluation (STATE) system, which summarizes information on tobacco use in all 50
states and the District of Columbia.
State Laws on Tobacco Control—United States, 1998 — MMRW Highlights
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