Tobacco & Vaping 101: Alabama

Current Adult Smoking Rates

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), smoking rates continue to decline in the Yellowhammer State.[i]

In 2020, 18.5 percent adults were classified as current smokers, amounting to 709,336 adults.[ii] This is an 8.9 percent decrease from 2019 when 20.3 percent of adults were current smokers. Further, this is a 24.8 percent decrease from 1995 when 24.6 percent of Alabama  adults reported smoking and the first year the BRFSS started collecting data on smoking rates.

In 2020, among adults, 13.2 percent reported smoking every day, 5.2 percent reported smoking some days, 24.8 percent reported being a former smoker, and 56.7 percent had never smoked. Daily smoking rates have decreased by 10.2 percent since 2019, and by 39.7 percent since 1995. Moreover, never-smokers increased by 2.2 percent between 2019 and 2020, and by 3.5 percent between 1995 and 2020.

Lower Income Persons More Likely to Smoke

Among current smokers in Alabama, in 2020, 35.9 percent reported annual incomes of less than $15,000 and 27.7 percent of current smokers reported earning between $15,000 and $24,999 per year. In fact, nearly two-thirds (63.6 percent) of all current adult smokers earned less than $24,999 per year in 2020. Only 11.9 percent of current adult smokers in Alabama reported earning $50,000 or more a year in 2020.

Interestingly, smoking rates have declined more rapidly among higher income persons in the Yellowhammer State than their low-income counterparts. Between 1995 and 2020, smoking rates among current smokers earning $24,999 or less increased by 10.8 percent. Conversely, among persons earning $50,000 or more, rates decreased by 29.2 percent during the same period. In fact, between 2019 and 2020, smoking rates decreased by only 1.5 percent among low-income earners, yet decreased by 9.8 percent among higher income smokers.

Adult Vaping Rates

Despite providing annual data on cigarette and smokeless tobacco use, the CDC’s BRFSS only reports on adult e-cigarette use for 2016 and 2017.

In 2017, according to the BRFSS, 4.9 percent of Alabama adults were current e-cigarette users. Similar to income status among smokers, lower income persons are more likely to use vapor products. In 2017, among current adult e-cigarette users, 12.8 percent reported household incomes of $25,000 or less per year. Conversely, only 3.4 percent reported earning $50,000 a year or more.

Economic Impact of Vaping in Alabama

In 2021, according to the Vapor Technology Association, the industry created 1,192 direct vaping-related jobs, including 856 retail jobs and 63 manufacturing jobs in Alabama. These jobs generated $28.8 million in wages.[iii] Moreover, the industry has created hundreds of secondary jobs in the Yellowhammer State, bringing the total economic impact in 2021 to $275.9 million. In the same year, Alabama received more than $16.4 million in state taxes attributable to the vaping industry.

Unfortunately, efforts by anti-vaping organizations and policymakers negatively affected vape shops in the Yellowhammer State. The number of employees in the vaping industry has increased by only 0.8 percent from 1,182 in 2018 to 1,192 in 2020.[iv] Overall economic output is on the decline. State tax collections in 2021 were down 10.5 percent from 2018’s level of $18.3 million. Overall, the economic output from the vaping industry in Alabama was reduced from $319.5 million in 2018 to $275.9 million in 2020, a 13.7 percent decrease.

Youth Tobacco and Vaping Rates

The most recent data on youth tobacco and vapor product use in Alabama comes from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.[v] In 2019, 54.4 percent of Alabama high school students reported ever-trying e-cigarettes, 19.4 percent reported past 30-day use, and 5.5 percent reported using vapor products daily.

Youth combustible cigarette use is at an all-time low. In 2019, 28.3 percent of Alabama high school students reported ever trying cigarettes, a 61.9 percent decrease from 1991 when 74.2 percent of high school students had tried cigarettes. Further, past 30-day use of combustibles has decreased by 74.5 percent from 27.8 percent in 1991 to 7.1 percent in 2019. Daily cigarette use has decreased by 87.5 percent from 9.6 percent of high school students that reported daily cigarette use in 1991 to 1.2 percent in 2019.

Young Adult Smoking Rates

Electronic cigarettes and vapor products were first introduced to the U.S. in 2007 “and between 2009 and 2012, retail sales of e-cigarettes expanded to all major markets in the United States.”[vi] Moreover, between September 2014 and May 2020, e-cigarette sales in the U.S. increased by 122.2 percent.[vii]

Examining data from the CDC’s BRFSS finds that e-cigarettes’ market emergence has coincided with a significant reduction in smoking rates among young adults.

In 1998, among current adult smokers, 24.7 percent were 18 to 24 years old. In 2008, this had decreased by 17.8 percent to 29.1 percent of adult smokers in Alabama being between 18 to 24 years old.

Ten years after e-cigarette’s market emergence in the early 2010s, smoking rates among current smokers aged 18 to 24 years decreased by 32.3 percent. Indeed, in 2010, among current smokers in Alabama, 16.4 percent were between 18 to 24 years old. In 2020, only 11.1 percent of current smokers were 18 to 24 years old.

Interestingly, e-cigarettes’ market emergence was associated with a larger decline in average annual percent decreases. Between 1998 and 2008, the percentage of current smokers aged 18 to 24 years old increased on average 3.4 percent each year. Between 2010 and 2020, annual percentage increases average at 0.9 percent.

Further, since 2016, when the U.S. surgeon general issued an alarm about youth e-cigarette use, smoking rates among adults aged 18 to 24 years in the Yellowhammer State have decreased by 32.7 percent, with an average annual decrease of 11 percent.[viii]

Wasted Tobacco Dollars

Between 2000 and 2020, Alabama collected an estimated $2.8 billion in cigarette taxes.[ix] During the same 20-year period, the Yellowhammer State increased the tax rate on cigarettes twice. The last tax increase raised the rate by $0.26, to $0.425 per pack.

The increase did lead to an immediate 40.3 percent increase in cigarette tax revenue in the year after the tax was imposed, but this has steadily declined in the long-term. Since 2017, cigarette tax revenue declined on average by 0.3 percent annually. In 2020, Alabama collected $160.2 million in cigarette tax revenue, a 10.9 percent decrease from the $179.8 million in cigarette tax revenue that was collected in 2017.

In the mid-1990s, Alabama sued tobacco companies to reimburse Medicaid for the costs of treating smoking-related health issues. And, in 1998 with 45 other states, the Yellowhammer State reached “the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history” through the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).[x]

Under the MSA, states receive annual payments – in perpetuity – from the tobacco companies, while relinquishing future claims against the participating companies. Between 2000 and 2020, Alabama collected $2.21 billion in MSA payments.[xi]

Tobacco taxes and tobacco settlement payments are justified to help offset the costs of smoking, as well as prevent youth initiation. Like most states, Alabama spends very little of existing tobacco moneys on tobacco control programs – including education and prevention. Between 2000 and 2020, Alabama allocated only $27.8 million in state funds towards tobacco control programs.[xii] This is only one percent of what the state collected in cigarette taxes in the same 20-year time span and only 1.3 percent of MSA payments. In total, in 20 years, Alabama allocated 0.6 percent of what the state received in tobacco taxes and settlement payments towards tobacco education and prevention efforts. In essence, for every $100 received in tobacco-related taxes and settlement payments, the state spent $0.60 funding tobacco control programs.

Summary Points:

• Smoking rates continue to decline in the Yellowhammer State. In 2020, only 18.5 percent of adults were current smokers. This is an 8.9 percent decrease from 2019.
• Nearly two-thirds (63.6 percent) of all current smokers earned less than $24,999 per year in 2020.
• Nationally, current vapor product use among high school students has declined by 41.8 percent since 2020 and by 58.9 percent since 2019, when 27.5 percent reported using e-cigarettes on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior to the survey.
• E-cigarettes’ market emergence is associated with low young adult smoking rates. In 2020, among current smokers in Alabama, only 11.1 percent current smokers were 18 to 24 years old. Further, since 2016, smoking rates among young adults have increased by 32.7 percent.
• Alabama’s vaping industry generated $275.9 million in economic activity in 2021 while generating 1,192 direct vaping-related jobs and contributed more than $16.4 million in state taxes.
• Unfortunately, anti-vaping efforts have reduced the industry’s economic impact. State tax collections were down 10.5 percent from 2018’s $18.3 million, and economic activity was down by 13.7 percent from $319.5 million in 2018.
• Alabama continues to allocate very little of tobacco-related settlement payments and taxes on tobacco control programs, including education and prevention.
• In 2020, the Yellowhammer State collected $160.2 million in state cigarette excise taxes and $103.4 million in tobacco settlement payments, yet allocated only $2.2 million (0.8 percent) to tobacco control. In 20 years, for every $100 the state received in tobacco-related payments, it spent $0.60 funding tobacco control programs.

[i] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “BRFSS Prevalence & Trends Data,” 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence/.

[ii] Kids Count Data Center, “Total population by child and adult populations in the United States,” The Annie E. Casey Foundation, September 2021, https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/99-total-population-by-child-and-adult-populations#detailed/1/any/false/1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868,867,133/39,40,41/416,417.

[iii] Vapor Technology Association, “The Economic Impact of the Vapor Industry Alabama,” 2021, https://vta.guerrillaeconomics.net/reports/fd9b5f2f-e259-43d3-9c12-b092eff573a9?.

[iv] Vapor Technology Association, “The Economic Impact of the Vapor Industry Alabama,” 2018, https://vta.guerrillaeconomics.net/reports/c21f1ff5-aad0-4f6f-93ba-7f987f82da5d?.

[v] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “High School YRBS 2019 Results,” 2019, https://nccd.cdc.gov/Youthonline/App/Default.aspx.

[vi] National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General,” 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538679/.

[vii] Fatma Romeh M. Ali, PhD., et al., “E-cigarette Unite Sales, by Product and Flavor Type – United States, 2014 – 2020,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 18, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937e2.htm/.

[viii] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “2016 Surgeon General’s Report: E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults,” November 15, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/e-cigarettes/index.htm.

[ix] Orzechowski and Walker, “The Tax Burden on Tobacco Historical Compilation Volume 55,” 2021. Print.

[x] Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, “The Master Settlement Agreement: An Overview,” August 2015, p. 1, http://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/tclc-fs-msa-overview-2015.pdf.

[xi] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Actual Annual Tobacco Settlement Payments Received by the States, 1998 – 2021,” January 11, 2022, https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0365.pdf.

[xii] Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, “Appendix A: History of Spending for State Tobacco Prevention Programs,” 2021, https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/factsheets/0209.pdf.