Fighting Commercial Tobacco. Together.
Washington Breathes is a statewide coalition of organizations and individuals working to eliminate the harmful use of commercial tobacco and other nicotine products.
Improving Health In All Communities
Our Top Priorities
Restore Comprehensive Funding
Obtain sustainable funding to support comprehensive commercial tobacco education, prevention, and treatment programs throughout the state.
Improve Access To Cessation Treatment
Ensure effective, culturally and linguistically appropriate nicotine cessation strategies and support are available and provided to all who seek it – including youth.
Address Disparities
Improve understanding of the disproportionate impact of commercial tobacco products on specific communities and tailor support services/messaging to the specific needs of that community.
Support Healthy Youth
Support policies, programs, and funding that educate youth on the harms of commercial tobacco use and support them in cessation efforts, working towards a future nicotine-free generation.
Eliminate Flavored Products
Educate on the harms of flavors - including menthol - and support policies that expand flavor restrictions and bans to reduce initiation and disparities.
Restore Local Authority
Explain the harmful impacts of preemption and the benefits of local regulations that reflect community interests and solve local problems caused by sales and marketing of commercial tobacco products.
The Tobacco Industry Spends About $85 Million Each Year on Marketing in WA State Alone
That's more than 20 times Washington's state investment of about $4 million in fiscal year 2024 for prevention strategies and cessation programs to reduce smoking and vaping.
STAY UP-TO-DATE
Featured Issues
New Surgeon General's report
Improving health in all communities by reducing commercial tobacco use is the focus of a comprehensive new report from the U.S. Surgeon General titled "Eliminating Tobacco-Related Disease and Death: Addressing Disparities". Overall use of commercial tobacco has gone down dramatically since the first Surgeon General's report in 1964, but those health improvements have not been equally distributed across all U.S. population groups. Disparities still exist by race and ethnicity, levels of income and education, mental health conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity, and geography.
Solving these problems requires recognizing that whether someone uses tobacco or not is not just an individual choice. There are factors that drive these disparities, which include the tobacco industry's strategies around aggressive marketing of flavored tobacco products and keeping product prices low. The report delves into these driving forces and defines strategies to reduce health disparities, such as increasing tobacco products prices, reducing nicotine levels in products, and eliminating flavored tobacco products.
See also our Address Disparities page for a summary of the key report findings.
The CDC's report homepage has the full report, fact sheets, a presentation, and other useful resources. This Guide is an excellent summary of the report's findings and recommendations.
Meaningful actions to reduce youth commercial tobacco use
The coalition's Supporting Healthy Youth workgroup has developed a new resource to explain policy solutions to prevent youth vaping and help young people quit nicotine use.
Our Supporting Healthy Youth fact sheet focuses on two critical strategies: (1) ending the sale of flavored tobacco products and (2) funding youth prevention and cessation programs provided by Tribes, community organizations, and for schools.
The fact sheet also shares data from the Healthy Youth Survey that shows disparities in youth commercial tobacco use, as well as historical trends as e-cigarette use has overtaken smoking.
Find more of the coalition's position statements and issue fact sheets on our Policy Statements page.
More 2023 Healthy Youth Survey Analysis
Trends in youth commercial tobacco use show a shift from smoking to vaping, and signs of increased use of oral nicotine products. After the pandemic, the WA Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) recorded an overall drop in youth commercial tobacco use that has also been seen in the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey. That's very encouraging, and there's more to the story.
A closer look at WA HYS data shows that the youth who vape are vaping more frequently. 44% of 10th grade students who vape at school say they vaped 20-30 days in the previous month, compared to 29% in 2021.
More frequent use indicates a greater dependence on nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive and challenging to quit, yet national data shows almost two-thirds of youth who tried to quit nicotine had no cessation support.
The WA HYS provides important estimates of youth use and access to commercial tobacco products. With the help of our coalition members and partners, we've been delving deeper into the 2023 HYS data to inform our work.
See more data analysis from the WA HYS and the National Youth Tobacco Survey on our Support Healthy Youth page.
104,000
youth will die prematurely from smoking
8,300
deaths from smoking each year
27%
of cancer deaths are due to smoking
$3.26 BN
in annual health care expenditures directly caused by commercial tobacco use
39th
WA's FY 2024 national rank for state investment in nicotine prevention & cessation
December 12th
Quit Coach Training
December 12th
Dual Tobacco Use
December 17
Vape Disposal in Our Schools
early January
Weekly Policy Change Learning Circles begin