Maine Facts

Prevention Efforts are Working in Maine

Thanks to the tobacco industry, Maine is faced with discouraging statistics. Smoking kills more people from the state than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

However, since 1997, when PTM began, to 2005, rates for adults who smoke decreased from 30% to 21%, and the rate among high school students plunged nearly 60%. We still face challenges combating the highly funded efforts of the tobacco industry, but smoking rates in Maine have declined substantially, and Maine’s efforts at funding and partnering for prevention are working.

Maine has received national recognition for its impressive outcomes in tobacco prevention in schools, workplaces, communities and retail stores.

Maine Facts and Statistics

Find online tobacco-use prevention data and statisitcs for Maine and nationally:

YRBSS: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

BRFSS: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

MYDAUS/YTS: The Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey/Youth Tobacco Survey

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The Maine Tobacco HelpLine Outcomes Report

 

Download a PTM fact sheet on tobacco use in Maine:

• Adult Tobacco Use in Maine
• Youth Tobacco Use in Maine
• Secondhand Smoke in Maine
• Social Norms and Youth Tobacco Use in Maine

 

Download a PTM fact sheet on one of the following:

• African American
• Asthma
• Behavioral Health
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Diabetes
• Disabled
• Hispanics
• Homeless
• Immigrants
• LGBT
• Low Socioeconomic Status
• Native Americans
• Pregnant Women
• Secondhand Smoke
• Tobacco and the Environment
• Women
• Young Adults
• Youth
  

Quick Facts About Smoking in Maine

 

Cigarette Sales in Maine Adults Youth Young Adults Women Pregnant Women Secondhand Smoke Quitting

 

Cigarettes Sales in Maine

Cigarettes sold:
1997: 101.1 packs per capita
2006: 64.8 packs per capita
(Tax Burden, Orzechowski and Walker, 2006)

Sources of cigarettes:
94% of Maine adults buy their cigarettes
5% roll their own
1% get them some other way

17% of smokers buy some of their cigarettes out-of-state
11% bought more than 10 packs out-of-state in the past year
(MATS 2004)

Youth sources of cigarettes:
83% of middle school students get their cigarettes from a friend, family member, or person 18 years of age, steal them, or give someone money to get them. Most middle school smokers get their cigarettes by stealing them from a friend.

69% of high school students get their cigarettes from a friend, family member, or person 18 years of age, steal them, or give someone money to get them. Most high school smokers give someone else money to buy their cigarettes or get them from a friend.

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Adults

Adult smokers in Maine:
21% of Maine adults smoke (20% women, 22% men)

(BRFSS 2006)

Income and education:
30% earn less than $25,000
13% earn over $50,000

29% of adults with a high school education smoke
8.5% of adults with a college degree smoke

Ages of adult smokers:
Heaviest smokers: ages 18-34
Fewest smokers: ages 65 and over

Smoking amounts:
50% of smokers smoke 11-20 cigarettes per day
16% of smokers smoke more than 20 cigarettes (a pack) per day
37% of smokers smoke less than 10 per day
(MATS 2004)

Former and non-smokers:
32% of adults in Maine are former smokers
47% have never smoked
(MATS 2004)

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Youth

Youth smokers in Maine:
16.2% of high school youth, or 1 in 6, smoke
7% of middle school youth
(YRBSS 2005)

Types of smokers:
14% of high school youth smoked cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars in the past month
(YRBSS 2005)

21.5% of males in high school smoked a cigar product in the past month (5% of adults reported smoking cigars)

(MATS 2004))

6.9% of high school youth use smokeless tobacco
(YRBSS 2005)

10.5% of males in high school used smokeless tobacco in the past month (2% of adults reported any smokeless tobacco use)

(MATS 2004)

Smoking amounts:
10% of high school smokers report smoking more than 20 per day
15% of middle school smokers report smoking more than 20 per day
Most smoke 2-5 cigarettes per day

Find more data about youth and tobacco use by county or region.

Get more facts about the impact tobacco has on kids at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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Young Adults

More than 26% of young adults aged 18-24 smoke.

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Women

Of Maine’s smokers, 20% are women.

The smoking rate among women 18 years and older was 21% (BRFSS) in 2003, or 1 in 5 women, and has not decreased significantly in the last decade.

Highest smoking rates are found in:

• women 18-44 years
• women with low education and income
• pregnant women on Medicaid
• lesbians
• Native American women

 

Women and Health

• Cardiovascular disease is Maine’s leading killer of women.
• In 2000, 2,424 women in Maine died of cardiovascular disease (1,157 from heart disease and 518 from stroke).
• In 1999, the heart disease death rate among Maine women was 204.8/100,000 compared to the national rate of 220.9/100,000.
• In 1999, the stroke death rate among Maine women was 60.2/100,000 compared to the national rate of 60.5/100,000.
• There were 12,561 hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease among Maine women in 2002 (3,651 due to heart disease and 2,041 due to stroke).

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Pregnant Women

Pregnant women who smoke:
17.5% of Maine’s pregnant women smoke

32.8% of women who receive MaineCare smoke
32.6% of pregnant teens (women less than 20 years old) smoke
25% of women enrolled in WIC smoke
31% of women who give birth to babies weighing less than 2500 grams smoke

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Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke exposure:
44,864 children under age 18 in Maine live in a home with a smoker and with no rules or loose rules about smoking in the home.

(MATS 2004)

59,776 children live in a home where smoking is not prohibited (Including homes where there is no smoker).

(MATS 2004)

Living with smokers:
39.4% of middle school students who do not smoke live with a smoker
73.1% of middle school youth who smoke live with a smoker
35.8% of high school youth who do not smoke live with a smoker
61.8% of high school youth who smoke live with a smoker

Perception of risk:
One-third of youth believe there is great risk in exposure to other people’s cigarette smoke
40% believe there is moderate risk

(MYDAUS 2006)

15% of youth smokers believe there is great risk in exposure to other people’s cigarette smoke
25% believe there is a moderate risk

(MYDAUS 2006)

Adult’s rules for smoking in the home:
72% report no smoking allowed anywhere in the home
16% report smoking allowed some places or some times in the home
12% allow smoking anywhere in the home
(Maine 2010 Indicator, MYDAUS 2006)

Secondhand smoke in the workplace:
25% of people say they are exposed to some secondhand smoke at work
One in 10 employed people in Maine are exposed to more than one hour per week (MATS 2004)
Jobs where employees are most likely to be exposed: manufacturing, construction and transportation

Adolescents in the same room with someone smoking anytime in the past week:
41% of middle school youth
53% of high school youth
(Maine 2010 Indicator, MYDAUS 2006)

Adolescents in a car with someone smoking on 7 days a week:
10% of middle school youth
14% of high school youth
(Maine 2010 indicator, MYDAUS 2006)

Adults who agree that people should be protected from secondhand smoke:
65% strongly agree
3% strongly disagree

(MATS 2004)

Find more information about the health consequences of involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke.

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Quitting

Quitting smoking:

Over 50% of youth smokers are not interested in quitting

40% of youth smokers would like to quit

Confident they could quit if they wanted to:
66% of middle school youth
73% of high school youth
Only 21% of all current smokers were “very confident” that they could remain a nonsmoker if they tried to quit

Attempts at quitting:
45.4% youth smokers made a serious attempt to quit in the past year (MYDAUS 2006)

59% of adult smokers reported that they tried to quit smoking in the past year (MATS 2004)

Among those that tried to quit:
45% quit for 1-6 days
26% quit for 7-30 days
29% quit for over 30 days

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