WICHITA, Kansas, May 15, 2008 – A report released Thursday from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says 39,000 Kansans will die from cigarette smoking this year.

The report has top state lawmakers promising to push for a statewide smoking ban next year.

“I think the most significant issue is that there is actually an increase in the rate of adult smoking at this time in this year, which is the first time for many years that we've seen that go up,” said……

The report shows 20 percent of Kansas adults smoke. That’s up from 17.8 percent. KDHE officials say that while it’s not yet statistically significant, it’s not the decrease they were hoping for. The state’s goal was to decrease the number of smokers to 14 percent by 2010.

"We're not going to make that without some major, big steps forward,” said…..”Baby steps have got us decreasing slowly and slowly, now we're plateauing off and I don't see us going down any further without some major policy changes.”

Those policy changes include a smoking ban, but such a law has faced stiff opposition in the past.

"You can buy fireworks, you can't use them, you can buy cigarettes, you can't smoke them,” said nightclub owner Dennis Steffes.

But the KDHE says buying them should be harder too, or at least more expensive. It’s also recommending raising the tobacco tax. Other recommendations include increasing tobacco prevention funding. Kansas spends significantly less than the amount recommended by the CDC.