State of Tobacco Control 2026 Coming In:

 
 

Washington Highlights

How does your state compare?

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

  1. Identify and allocate additional funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs;
  2. End the sale of all flavored tobacco products; and
  3. Increase tobacco taxes.
Washington legislators began the 2025 legislative session with a $10–12 billion budget deficit that increased throughout the legislative session to $16 billion. Governor Ferguson directed most state agencies to cut their budgets by 6%. This situation made proposals that involved allocating funding, especially challenging this year.

Two bills, House Bill 1203 (Reeves) and Senate Bill 5183 (Nobles) were introduced to end the sale of flavored tobacco products. The House bill had a hearing and was moved out of the Consumer Protection & Business committee with a vote of 8-7. It was referred to the Finance committee. SB 5183 had a hearing and no action was taken in the Health & Long-Term Care committee. These bills didn't advance further. One of the biggest challenges was the fiscal note, adding to the budget deficit.

Three House bills were introduced to increase tobacco taxes and all were referred to the Finance committee. House Bill 1416 (Reeves) proposed raising taxes on multiple tobacco and nicotine products generating around $32 million per biennium. House Bill 1417 (Reeves) proposed a small tax increase on cigarettes generating about $3 million per two-year biennium. House Bill 2033 (Stonier) proposed modifying definitions of tobacco products to include oral nicotine products and synthetic nicotine products. All of these bills were unsuccessful in passing.

Senate Bill 5814 (Frame) proposed closing the synthetic nicotine loophole in taxation – impacting oral nicotine products containing synthetic nicotine. This bill was successful. With the passage of this legislation, these products will be taxed at 95% of the taxable sales price, effective January 1, 2026. This new revenue was directed to go to the state general fund.

The state tobacco prevention program budget was reduced by $756,000 from the previous biennium's budget with $2.1 million in annual funding.

The American Lung Association will continue to pursue and support increasing funding for the state's prevention and cessation programs, increasing taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products and ending the sale of all flavored tobacco products.

Washington Facts
Healthcare Costs Due to Smoking: $2,811,911,987
Adult Smoking Rate: 9.00%
Adult Tobacco Use Rate: 15.90%
High School Smoking Rate: 2.20%
High School Tobacco Use Rate: N/A
Middle School Smoking Rate: 1.50%
Smoking Attributable Deaths per Year: 8,290
Adult smoking and tobacco use data come from CDC's 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; adult tobacco use includes cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes. High school (10th grade only) and middle school (8th grade only) smoking rates are taken from the 2023 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey. A current high school tobacco use 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.

Washington Information

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

State Grades Report Laws & Policies Historical Data