Kansas Highlights

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Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States and in Kansas. To address this enormous toll, the American Lung Association calls for the following actions to be taken by Kansas elected officials:

  1. Increase state funding for tobacco control programs and ensure that funding is spent according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control programs;
  2. Pass legislation to remove ineffective and regressive criminal and monetary penalties for youth in the State’s tobacco statutes; and
  3. Oppose all forms of preemption of local tobacco control authority.
One success of the 2023 Legislative Session in Kansas was the passage of House Bill 2269, a bill to increase age of sale from 18 to 21. HB 2269 received active support from GOP leadership and the bill passed House and Senate with no amendments. Governor Laura Kelly signed it into law in April 2023. The Lung Association supported this legislation but would have preferred language like in House bill 2294 that fixed other problems with Kansas’ laws concerning underage sales of tobacco products.

Preemption of local tobacco control authority remained a threat in 2023. One such bill was House Bill 2447 prohibiting cities and counties from ending the sale of products or services otherwise allowed by state law. As originally introduced it was extremely broad. Amendments were made to remove preemption by cities and counties regarding alcohol, consumer materials to the extent necessary to comply with local building or fire codes, requiring licensing or permitting of individuals, partnerships, corporation or other business entity and zoning authority. Despite the amendment, the bill failed.

Kansas was part of the 33-state settlement with Juul in September 2022 over its efforts to market e-cigarettes to youth. Funds received from Juul go to the state’s General Fund. Tobacco control advocates successfully worked to transfer the specific payment dollars from the General Fund to the Tobacco Use Prevention program as part of the annual budget process. This increased tobacco prevention funding for Kansas by close to $1 million in fiscal year 2024.

In 2024, the American Lung Association in Kansas and Greater Kansas City and coalition partners will focus on eliminating youth purchase, use and possession penalties in Kansas tobacco policy. We also will work to increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs in the 2024 legislative session to curb tobacco initiation by children and youth and to motivate adult smokers to quit.

Kansas Facts
Healthcare Costs Due to Smoking: $1,128,040,688
Adult Smoking Rate: 14.50%
High School Smoking Rate: 4.60%
High School Tobacco Use Rate: 14.90%
Middle School Smoking Rate: N/A
Smoking Attributable Deaths per Year: 4,390
Adult smoking data come from CDC's 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. High school smoking and tobacco use rates are taken from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. A current middle school smoking rate is not available for this state.

Health impact information is taken from the Smoking Attributable Mortality, Morbidity and Economic Costs (SAMMEC) software. Smoking attributable deaths reflect average annual estimates for the period 2005-2009 and are calculated for persons aged 35 years and older. Smoking-attributable healthcare expenditures are based on 2004 smoking-attributable fractions and 2009 personal healthcare expenditure data. Deaths and expenditures should not be compared by state.

Kansas Information

Learn more about your state specific legislation regarding efforts towards effective Tobacco Control.

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