Most States Receive Grade “F” for Antismoking Campaigns
The good news: In 1998, the tobacco industry was ordered to pay more than $240 billion over 25 years as part of a master settlement to help pay past and future health-care costs related to tobacco products.
The bad news: In its fourth State of Tobacco Control Report, released in January, the American Lung Association gave 40 states and Washington, D.C., an “F” for their use of the funds allotted to smokers to stop and to prevent others from picking up the habit. States were graded in four areas: tobacco prevention and control funding, smoke-free air, cigarette taxes and youth access.
“States have spent the money for everything but the tobacco control programs,” says Paul Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association. “Some states use it to plug deficits, other states have securitized or sold the future payments off in exchange for cash today, so they have squandered it all in one or two ears.”
In effect, Billings says, states have spent their funds for anything they wanted to. Billings names Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Mississippi and Wyoming as the states that have funded at the levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When the money is spent on tobacco control programs, it has produced good results. For example, Main — which received an “A” on its report card for tobacco control — has seen a 60 poercent reduction in youth smoking between 1997 and 2005.
