Communities take aim to snuff out smoking

When the Minnesota Department of Health released a report on smoking in early January, newspapers played up the cost angle. "Smoking's tab up 32 percent in Minnesota," proclaimed a Pioneer Press headline. "Health care costs tied to smoking rise," the Star Tribune reported. Buried beneath the headlines, however, was the real story: Minnesota's anti-smoking efforts have stalled out. Despite intense efforts to curb smoking in the state, our smoking rate has hovered around 22 percent since 1990. A 1991 jump to 23.3 percent placed us above the national average of 23 percent and knocked us out of first place in a Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. ranking of the nation's healthiest states.