Anti-smoking programs

Smoking in the US

State governments are spending less and less on anti-smoking programs, which are designed to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. They are spending less despite the fact that they are collecting record revenues from tobacco companies, a new report has found.

The report, A Broken Promise to Our Children, which was conducted by a group health and advocacy organizations - the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - found that state governments have reduced spending by 15 percent to $567 million, for smoking prevention and cessation programs in the fiscal year, which ended in September.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has issued annual reports since the November 1998 multi-state tobacco settlement. The annual reports assess whether the states are keeping their promise to use a significant portion of their settlement funds - estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years - to attack the enormous public health problems posed by tobacco use in the US.

State spending on anti-smoking programs accounted for only 2.3 percent of the more than $25 billion that states are expected to collect from tobacco taxes and payouts from the $246 billion settlement that states reached with tobacco companies in 1998, the groups said in their 11th annual report since the settlement, The New York Times states.

"It's a travesty that only a small fraction of tobacco settlement funds is actually being used to support tobacco prevention programs in states," Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Association, said in a statement.

State cuts

States are not required to spend the money on anti-smoking programs. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported Wednesday that states had to fill a cumulative budget gap of $145 billion this year because of unprecedented revenue declines.

Only one state - North Dakota - currently funds a tobacco prevention program at the level recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only nine other states fund tobacco prevention at even half the CDC-recommended level, while 31 states and DC provide less than a quarter of the recommended funding.

New York State made some of the largest cuts to anti-smoking programs, reducing them by $25.2 million, or 31 percent, the groups said, adding that it did so "despite having a successful program that has reduced smoking to well below national rates."

Other states that made large cuts last year were Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The report says tobacco companies spend $20 on marketing for every $1 that states spend on anti-smoking efforts. The five largest tobacco companies spent $12.5 billion on advertising and promotion in 2006, the latest year figures were available, a Federal Trade Commission spokeswoman, Betsy Lordan, said.

The CDC recently reported that the adult smoking rate in 2008 was 20.6 percent, which is basically unchanged since 2004 when 20.9 percent smoked.

Smoking among high school students has declined by 45 percent from a high of 36.4 percent in 1997, 20 percent of high school students still smoke.

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