Government and health care organizations are engaged in a variety of strategies to reduce tobacco use with the goal of decreasing health care costs and improving population health. The economic impact of smoking-related illness exceeds $300 billion annually in the US with $170 billion attributable to direct medical care and over $156 billion attributable to lost productivity. The Centers for Disease Control reported over 480,000 deaths in the US in 2016 due to smoking and the effects of second hand smoke. The World Health Organization issued policy recommendations in 2003 with three strategies to reduce tobacco use:

A California public health nurse is preparing educational material for a smoking cessation class. In the case “Health Care Costs Associated with Smoking: A National Perceptive,” a heat map was created that shows the total cost of health care for each state. A heat map is an effective way to visualize this data. As the nurse continues to prepare for the class, she is interested in examining expenditure data from state government programs and policies aimed at smoking cessation.