Washington, D.C. – April 22, 2010 – A new report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights the critical need for comprehensive tobacco control policies to save lives and protect children. The report, Tobacco Control State Highlights 2010, shows how states are performing on measures such as smoking rates, tobacco excise taxes, smoke-free policies and tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
“This report highlights the importance of combining comprehensive state and local smoke-free laws, higher tobacco excise taxes and fully funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs to reduce the negative toll of tobacco use on communities,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society. “Only by tackling tobacco use through a comprehensive approach can we effectively overcome the nation’s tobacco epidemic.”
The Society and ACS CAN work in partnership with state policymakers across the country to ensure that tobacco use is addressed through proven methods including 1) raising the price of tobacco products, 2) implementing comprehensive smoke free policies and 3) fully funding and sustaining evidenced-based, statewide tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
A 2008 study, published jointly by the Society and other leading health organizations, concluded that regions of the country with weak tobacco control policies that do not include effective strategies in all three areas experienced higher rates of tobacco use and tobacco-related cancers.
Since 2002, 46 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories have raised their cigarette tax in 98 separate instances, including 14 states and the District of Columbia in 2009 alone. Three states – New Mexico, Utah and Washington – have increased their taxes in 2010. Washington’s tax increase will be signed into law tomorrow. Once the three increases are in effect by July 1, the new average state tobacco tax will be $1.40 per pack. Cigarette taxes currently range from a low of seven cents in South Carolina to a high of $3.46 in Rhode Island.
Research has consistently shown that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by 7 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about 4 percent.
Secondhand smoke is a major health hazard, proven to cause lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. With 4,000 chemicals and more than 60 carcinogens – including arsenic and polonium – secondhand smoke causes cancer, heart, and lung disease and kills more than 49,000 nonsmoking Americans each year, including 3,300 deaths from lung cancer.
Currently 23 states have passed strong smoke-free legislation that requires 100 percent smoke-free non-hospitality workplaces, bars and restaurants. Of those 23, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, and Kansas, are awaiting implementation. More than 3,100 municipalities have local laws in effect that restrict where smoking is permitted. Earlier this year, North Carolina became the first major tobacco growing state to implement a 100 percent statewide smoke-free restaurant and bar law.
Smoke-free workplaces and public places make it easier for smokers to quit and discourage kids from picking up this deadly habit. For example, after Colorado’s smoke-free law went into effect in 2006, calls to the state’s tobacco cessation Quitline increased by 1,400 percent in the month after implementation and by almost 600 percent after two months.
States with comprehensive tobacco control programs experience faster declines in cigarette sales, smoking prevalence, and lung cancer incidence and mortality than states that do not invest in these programs. As of 2008, only 17 states covered at least one cessation medication and one type of tobacco-dependence counseling service for all Medicaid recipients, and only seven states cover all the therapies recommended by the U.S. Public Health Service.
The CDC recommends states spend $3.7 billion or more on tobacco control programs. Only nine states are funding at even half of the CDC’s recommend spending levels and North Dakota is the only state to approve funding control programs at the CDC prevention spending target.
“Despite major progress in passing strong tobacco control measures at the state and local levels, only 40 percent of the population is covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws and only one state currently meets the CDC’s recommend spending levels on tobacco control,” said Molly A. Daniels, interim president of ACS CAN. “There is much more work to be done and the CDC’s report will be an essential tool for advocates and lawmakers working to strengthen their state tobacco control policies.”
The use of tobacco products remains the nation’s number one cause of preventable death, killing more than 400,000 Americans and costing $96 billion in direct health care costs each year.
The report is available on the CDC website: www.cdc.gov/tobacco.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Nicole Bender
(202) 661-5773
[email protected]
Steven Weiss
(202) 661-5711
[email protected]