Map of the Week: Smoking

REUTERS

I've been wanting to do a smoking-related map for a while, but couldn't see where the data would come from. Then a reader pointed me to the Community Health Survey's smoking study, which breaks down Ontario by public health regions, which more or less correspond to the borders of major municipalities (city/region/county/district, depending on where in the province you are).

The map shows the percentage of residents over 12 who reported being daily smokers in the most recent year available, which was 2005.

The very strong pattern the map shows is high smoking rates in rural and northern areas, lower rates in small cities, and very low rates in large cities: Windsor, London, K-W, the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa.

Haldimand-Norfolk and Elgin, both on the top five list, are home to Ontario's remaining tobacco farms.

The top five are:
1) Haldimand-Norfolk
2) Porcupine
3) Hastings and Prince Edward
4) Leeds, Grenville and Lanark
5) Elgin

The bottom five are:
32) Middlesex-London
33) City of Ottawa
34) City of Toronto
35) York Region
36) Perth

View smoking in a larger map

Comments

[Bill Lee]

Can you do a cartogram as well, a distorted map showing by area and colour and hatching, showing the the rates per capita. Some of those areas are large, but quite empty. Anyway of visiting the Globe, the Sun and the freebies and matching the number of smokers on the street?

Add Strange maps blog to the left rail.

[Eden]

How about a companion map showing the number of lung cancer deaths?

[j. gold]

Since, it is using STC data, the data is survey weighted to the population i.e the percentage is based upon weighted counts. However, the analyst should have put the actual percentages on the map, along with the Confidence interval. btw, if the analyst is capable of working with raw data, I believe that the newest CCHS results can be obtained. i.e. 2005 is not the most recent. it is only the most recent in a tabular format.

[j. gold]

oh, I should add that after looking at the confidence intervals, while it is only a rough approximation (no statistical tests performed, there does not appear to be any significant difference between the highest and the lowest, their 95 % confidence intervals overlap. Likely, the difference is due to the larger sampling variability of the rural regions. your conclusions, do not seem to be fully supported by the results. If you want to know better whether there is a difference, I would advise using more sosphisticated statistical methods (perhaps, logistic regression)

[Frank Chow]

"The map shows the percentage of residents over 12 who reported being daily smokers in the most..."

Is "12" a typo and should have been "18"? I thought that one has to be "18" to buy cigarettes and that there is a huge penalty for someone to buy cigarettes for someone who is under "18".

[pcain]

12 is correct: http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.exe?Lang=E&RootDir=CII/&ResultTemplate=CII/CII___&Array_Pick=1&ArrayId=1050327

[M Bennett]

It would be very interesting to compare this data to the use and sale of contraband tobacco.

[Bobber]

Hmmm well it's interesting, but as a smoker...why not look into who leaves their cars idling, or use cars for useless reasons?

All...are just as selfish as any smoker lingering near an exit. (which i wouldn'd do myself!)

I've seen people complain about a sidewalk smoker near their patio chair, while an SUV idled for 10 minutes in the same location.

HUMANS! ;)

[Marg Trethewey]

Why do smokers seek to justify their claim to the right to pollute the environment and endanger the health of others by citing the same offences by the owners/drivers of SUVs? To their twisted way of thinking two wrongs do make a right. Incidentally, I wonder how many of these SUV owners/drivers are also smokers who manage to offend the rest of us not only one way but both?

[Muti]

What about the moral and spiritual pollution spread by non-smokers?
And what about the Alcohol & Technology related damages and their cost.Haven't government got the right to file such suits as well.

[Paul]

How is it that the government of Ontario can justify suing the tobacco companies for compensation when the tobacco companies collect for the government far more than the $1.6 billion dollars smokers allegedly cost the Ontario health care system per year? As far as I am concerned, Smokers pay more in tobacco taxes than they drain on the health care system! Just another PR stunt by politicians listening to a very powerful (and well paid) advocacy groups trying to appease them for votes! Further, I wonder if these stats include sale of contraband tobacco? Probably not!

[Fred]

What a bunch of shameless hypocrites. The Ontario government has the power to change the laws to make tobacco a controlled substance much like marijuana is, or even ban it altogether. But instead of showing some real guts, they choose to go this route so they can continue to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes each year from the sale of this filthy and deadly crap. It's the coward's way out. Don't get me wrong, I hope they win their lawsuit but for once I just wish that someone in government would stand up and do what's right. Even when I was a smoker I hoped that the someone would take such a stand but I guess taxes will always be more important than saving lives.

[Yvonne]

When I think of all the British housewives who chain-smoked during the war when bombs were falling around them and a lot of them are still living healthy lives and I wonder how perfect is the science that smoking causes lung cancer.

[Wendy Pipher-Law]

I agree smoking is bad for you, but.....what does the government do with all the tax dollars it collects from tobacco sales? Is it not true that the salt,sugar and trans fats in our foods is killing people faster than damage from cigarette smoke?

Most European Countries have huge smoking rates, but Denmark that has a down right ban on transfats has a lower death rate.

The number one cause of Death in Heart Diaease. Educate yourselves before jumping on a government lead band wagon. Make them do something about our foods!!!!

[paul]

Could they maybe ban all fast food franchises as well since obesity is now considered the number one cause of ALL disease. I,for one would welcome that decision. This is just another tax grab. Be very afraid of what the government will think up next.

[Imran]

I think we should sue ontario government for letting these companies operate for so long. They were collecting taxes from these companies and now they want to sue them.

[John]

Not only do smokers pay more than their fair share of health care costs they also tend to die sooner and save governments billions in pensions, old age security, and all other seniors programs.

[John]

Governments are equally culpable for allowing the sale of tobacco given the dangers they knew of (and did not even try to deny). If government inspectors found listeria in lunch meat and did nothing to stop the sale or force a recall they would be sued by the victims. Allowing the ongoing sales of a product that causes premature death when used as intended is a gross negligence on behalf of government safety regulations. The "victims" should also be sued for knowingly ingesting a product that everyone has known is dangerous for at least 3 decades.

[James]

Now that government surplus like bank and ins. co. profits have come to an end during an era people saw record debt and low savings, with no one to leach from they eye tobacco companies like the mean spirited governments of the past who cut spending on social benefits to the most needy.

What's next, suing car companies to cover the cost of accident victims?

Every time we fill at the pump, most is tax, the revenues from taxing tobacco alone should outweigh these health care costs, we get taxed on booze, every time we sell a car or house there is tax, food and even services are now taxed with the introduction of the GST bonanza and scam...

You'd think those elected to work in our best interest would stop acting like a profit maximzing entity in the public sector.

They even legalized casino gambling to subsidize health care while neglecting the mass exodus of homes, ruined quality of lives, and endless unpublished suicides this created...for health care sake

What a bunch of incompetent keystone clowns that are drawn to power who can't manage this health care, social programs, or even our economy for that matter. Just look at what each chrome rolling bed costs...

I do not know anyone who died from smoking but plenty of heart attacks from the stresses our supposedly enhanced standard of living has created. Maybe we should sue the government for being over taxed and robbed to fraud in the stock markets while we are at it or draw more compassion to power than those best versed in bickering and business.