The Facts

In Summary

The American Cancer Society reports that "each year about 438,000 people in the United States die from illnesses related to smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined."

The gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community in the United States continues to be disproportionately impacted by smoking. The GLBT community is among the populations most severely impacted by tobacco use. The most recent study suggests the GLBT community smokes at a rate almost 50% to 200% higher than the general population. This is in part due to Tobacco Companies that aggressively advertise to the GLBT Community. The social stress of living in a society that can be hostile to GLBT people, also plays a factor in higher smoking rates, particularly among GLBT youth.

Smoking cessation is an important component of GLBT health and wellness. Residents of the District of Columbia can access free support to quit smoking by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW. DC residents who call this number can get free smoking cessation aids like nicotine gum or patches.

The GLBT Community is Disproportionately Impacted by Tobacco

• Members of the GLBT community smoke at a far greater rate than that of the general population, although estimates vary widely. In one 2004 California Study, lesbian women were 70% more likely to smoke than other women, and gay men were more than 50% more likely to smoke than other men. More recent research suggests this number may be even higher. The LGBT National Tobacco Control Network estimates that the GLBT community is 50% to 200% more likely than others to be addicted to tobacco. ^1,2
  
• GLBT adolescents also smoke at an alarming rate, in one national study 47 of females and 36.7 of males reporting same-sex attraction or behavior smoked. In comparison, only 29% of the rest of young people in the study smoked.³

Negative Health Impacts of Smoking are Clear

• Tobacco is the number one cause of mortality in this country.⁴ The American Cancer Society estimates that over 30,000 GLBT people die each year of tobacco-related diseases.⁵ This is a conservative estimate, because it presumes we smoke at the same rate as the rest of the population.
  
• Adults who smoke lose an average of 13 to 14 years of their lives.⁶
  
• In the United States, about 90% of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80% of lung cancer deaths in women are due to smoking.⁷
  
• Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smokers are 2-4 times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than nonsmokers.⁸

Smoking and HIV/AIDS

• Smoking weakens the immune system, and makes it even harder to fight off opportunistic infections associated with HIV. Smoking also increases the risk of HIV-associated malignancies and other cancers found among people living with HIV/AIDS. Further, HIV positive individuals who are at greater risk for heart disease because of lypodystrophy, significantly compound that risk by smoking.⁹

Tobacco Companies Have Targeted our Community

• The tobacco industry spends more than $13 billion each year to promote cigarette use in the United States.¹⁰ The Tobacco company has targeted the GLBT community since at least 1991, advertising at Pride and other GLBT community events, and contributing to both national and local GLBT and HIV/AIDS Organizations. ¹¹
  
• An early Tobacco industry document described the plan for increasing sales among San Francisco's gay and homeless populations, it was labeled "Project SCUM".¹²

Social Stress Factors also Contribute to Increased Smoking Rates

• The stress of living in a society that can sometimes be hostile to the GLBT community creates social stress that makes many GLBT people, but particularly GLBT youth, at greater risk for substance use.¹³
  
• 30% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students in the District of Columbia said they were bullied at least once on school property in the 2006-2007 school year. More than a quarter of GLB high school students said they had skipped school once or more in the past month because they felt unsafe in school or on the way to school.¹⁴ Social stress factors such as these contribute to greater smoking rates.

GLBT People and Smoking Cessation

• Although more lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender smokers believe smoking increases their risk of diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease, fewer have made quit attempts (75% compared with 80% of all adults).¹⁵
  
• Residents of the District of Columbia can access free support to quit smoking by calling 1-800-QUIT- NOW. DC residents who call this number can get free smoking cessation aids like nicotine gum or patches.
  
• The DC Center offers smoking cessation support for all LGBT people and allies which comes with nicotine replacement therapy. Combining nicotine replacement therapy with such a program will double your chances of quitting successfully.¹⁶

click here to download the fact sheet as a pdf file

Citations

1 Tang H, Greenwood GL, Cowling, DW, Lloyd, JC, Roeseler AG, Bal, DG. "Cigarette Smoking among lesbians, gays, and bisexuals: how serious a problem? (2004) Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 15, Number 8. Pages 797-803.

2 National LGBT Tobacco Control Network. http://lgbttobacco.org. Accessed October 10 , 2008.

3 Easton A, Jackson, K, Mowery P, Comeau D, Sell R. (2008) Adolescent Same-Sex and Both-Sex Romantic Attractions and Relationships, Implications for Smoking. Am J Public Health. 2008;98 462-497.

4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Economic Costs-U.S., 1995-1999. MMWR Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. April 2002;51(14).

5 American Cancer Society. Tobacco and the GLBT Community. http://www.glbthealth.org/documents/GLBTTobacco.pdf. Accessed October 10th, 2008..

6 2004 Surgeon General's Report. The Health Consequences of Smoking. Office of the Surgeon General.

7 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lung Cancer Risk Factors. http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm. Accesses October 10th, 2008.

8 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart Disease and Stroke. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/health_effects/heart_disease/. Accessed October 10 , 2008.

9 For additional information, please see The DC Center Fact Sheet entitled 'Smoking and HIV/AIDS

10 U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Cigarette Report for 2004 and 2005, 2007 [data for top 5 manufacturers], http://www.ftc.gov/reports/tobacco/2007cigarette2004-2005.pdf]. FTC, Smokeless Tobacco Report for the Years 2002 and 2005, 2007, http://www.ftc.gov/reports/tobacco/02-05smokeless0623105.pdf

11 Smith E, Malone R. (2003) The Outing of Philip Morris: Advertising Tobacco to Gay Men. Am J Public Health. 2003 June; 93(6): 988-993.

12 American Legacy Foundation. Project Scum. http://www.americanlegacy.org/2114.aspx. Accessed October 10th, 2008.

13 Savin-Williams R. Verbal and physical abuse stressors in the lives of lesbian, gay male, and bisexual youths: associations with school problems, running away, substance abuse, prostitution, and suicide. J Consult Clin Pschol. 1994;62:261-269.

14 DC Public Schools. 2007 DC Youth Risk Behavior Survey. http://www.k12.dc.us/offices/oss/hivaids/pdfs/GLBT_fact_sheet.pdf. Accessed October 10th, 2008.

15 Harris Interactive: Gays and Lesbians More Likely to Smoke than Other Adults Despite Risks. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=289. Accessed October 10th, 2008.

16 American Cancer Society. Guide to quitting smoking. www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp. Accessed October 10th, 2008.