DuPage County Board of Health endorses
Statewide smoking ban, calls for county cigarette tax

‘Higher cigarette taxes will mean fewer smokers’

In an effort to help reduce the number of teen smokers in DuPage County, as well as help adult smokers kick the habit, members of the DuPage County Board of Health approved a resolution Thursday night (Jan. 12) supporting state legislation that would provide counties with the authority to adopt anti-smoking bans in public places, as well as enact a cigarette tax increase in DuPage County.

If counties had the statutory authority to enact these two measures, DuPage County would significantly help reduce the number of smokers, said Linda Kurzawa, board of health president.

“A county cigarette tax would stop some young people from starting to smoke and discourage others from continuing a bad habit,” said Kurzawa, “Statistics show that a 10 percent increase in cigarette taxes will result in a 12 percent decrease in smoking among young people.” Studies prove that “higher cigarette taxes will mean fewer smokers,” she added.

The board’s resolution called smoking and secondhand smoke “significant public health threats” and “a contributing factor in the leading causes of death in DuPage County, including heart disease, cancer, stroke and emphysema.”

The resolution did receive the support of the American Cancer Society and American Lung Association, both members of the DuPage County Coalition Against Tobacco. Chris Hemsley, ACS Regional Vice President, and Harold Wimmer, Chief Executive Officer for ALA in Illinois, spoke on behalf of the resolution.

Kurzawa praised the action of the board and said this resolution is important “since smoking is the single most preventable cause of death in DuPage County.”

“We promote health, prevent illness, and provide quality service”