Did you know that this year states will collect a record $25.7 billion in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes? This is an incredible amount of money that states could be using to save lives and reduce health care costs by fighting back against our nation's tobacco epidemic, but they're not. According to an annual report ACS CAN released today with several other public health organizations, states will spend less than two percent of this settlement money on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two pennies of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco addiction. The report also finds that states are providing just 12 percent of the tobacco prevention funding recommended by the CDC. In fact, only two states - Alaska and North Dakota - currently fund tobacco prevention programs at the CDC-recommended level, and only three other states - Delaware, Wyoming and Hawaii - provide even half of the recommended amount. Perhaps the most disturbing part is how these numbers compare to what the tobacco industry is spending. The tobacco companies spend about $8.5 billion every year marketing their deadly products or nearly $1 million every hour of every day. When you compare that number to what states are spending on prevention programs, tobacco companies spend more than $18 to encourage people to smoke for every $1 states spend to keep kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This is unacceptable. While we are in tough economic times, this is guaranteed revenue that each state could be using to reverse deep budget cuts to tobacco cessation and prevention programs that have set back the nation's efforts to reduce tobacco use. These programs are not only lifesaving, but cost saving. By investing in tobacco prevention states can save millions in reduced tobacco-related health care costs, which total $96 billion a year in the U.S. Although the nation has made enormous progress in reducing smoking, smoking declines have slowed in recent years. Nineteen percent of adults and 18.1 percent of high school students still smoke. The use of smokeless and other tobacco products is on the rise. Our lawmakers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that tobacco companies cannot continue to deceive the American people and addict our children to their deadly products by enacting legislation to support measures that are proven to reduce tobacco use and save lives. In addition to fully funding tobacco prevention and cessation programs, the most effective ways to curb tobacco use are through regularly and significantly increasing tobacco taxes and enacting comprehensive smoke-free laws. ACS CAN staff and volunteers are making it loud and clear to lawmakers that through this three-pronged approach they can make a significant impact on reducing tobacco use, which continues to kill more than 400,000 Americans each year and is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States.
Today’s blog is one of a series of posts highlighting how ACS CAN is examining, prioritizing and pursuing policy interventions that ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to prevent, find, treat and survive cancer. Achieving health equity in communities nationwide is a cornerstone of our mission.