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Local Cigarette Bill
$164,000 a Year
What changes, if any, have residents of Rappahannock County made in their smoking habits in the last few years? Have they cut down on cigarettes? Are they smoking more or less than people in other parts of the country?
The indications are, according to nationwide statistics, that the battle against cigarette smoking, despite opposition, is finally achieving results.
In each of the last two years there was a definite drop in consumption, with the 1969 rate the lowest in a decade.
The Department of Agriculture reports that the decline in the past year was approximately 240 cigarettes, or 12 packs, per person over age 18. Americans as a whole reduced their smoking by more than a billion cigarettes.
Figures released by the government, by the Tobacco Tax Council and others depict the trend in each section of the country.
In the local area, it appears, a sizeable number of people have given up smoking entirely. Others have been trying, with varying success, to cut down.
In Rappahannock County, on the basis of the statewide figures, an estimated 570,000 packs of cigarettes were consumed in the past year.
In terms of the local population over age 18, this amounted to 198 packs per person.
It was a lower rate than the national, which averaged 207 packs for those over 18. In the South Atlantic States the rate was 197.
Most health authorities believe that the case against smoking has been clearly proved. The tobacco Industry maintains, however, that the evidence is merely statistical and that there has been no laboratory proof to connect cmoking with the rising death rates from lung cancer and some other diseases.
It contends, also, that most smokers remain unconvinced and that the drop in sales is due chiefly to the increased taxes levied on cigarettes. They were raised in 18 states in 1969.
All in all, smoking has become a more costly pastime. Residents of Rappahannock County spent some $164,000 during the past year for cigarettes, or about $57 per smoker. It is estimated.
88.0%