According to a study released today by The American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ,states have cut funding for tobacco prevention programs by more than 15 percent in the past year, even though they’re receiving record amounts of money from tobacco taxes and from the 1998 state tobacco settlement .
The study called ”A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 11 Years Later” lists several troubling findings which are summarized in an article in Scout News and partially reprinted below.
- “In the past year, states have cut funding for tobacco prevention by $103.4 million (15.4 percent). Including cuts approved last week, New York made the largest cut — $25.2 million (31 percent) — even though the state has a successful program that’s reduced smoking to well below the national rate. Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington are other states that have made large cuts to tobacco prevention programs.
- In fiscal year 2010, states will collect $25.1 billion in revenue from the tobacco settlement and from tobacco taxes, but will spend just 2.3 percent ($567.5 million) of that on tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Many states are expected to hike tobacco taxes next year.
- North Dakota is the only state that currently funds a tobacco prevention program at the level recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only nine states fund tobacco prevention at even half the CDC-recommended level, while 31 states and the District of Columbia provide less than one-quarter of the recommended funding.
- For every dollar states spend to discourage tobacco use, tobacco companies spend $20 to market their products. In total, tobacco companies spend $12.8 billion a year on marketing, according to the Federal Trade Commission.”
“Tobacco use — the leading preventable cause of death in the United States — claims more than 400,000 lives and $96 billion in health-care dollars each year. Every day, another 1,000 children or teens become regular smokers and one-third of them will die prematurely as a result of their tobacco use.”
