Today the American Cancer Society and ACS CAN are celebrating the 37th Great American Smokeout. Each year on this day, thousands of people across the country put down their cigarettes for a day, and many make a plan to never pick them up again. However, the Great American Smokeout is also a day to draw attention to the devastating impact tobacco use continues to have on our country and how lawmakers can help to reverse it.
Tuesday marks a significant day for our country as we elect officeholders at all levels of government. Voters in Missouri have another important issue on the ballot that, if passed, could potentially save 22,000 lives a proposal to increase the state's lowest-in-the-country tobacco tax.
I recently came across a fascinating new study that shows the power of television advertising in encouraging people to quit smoking. Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study results suggest that smokers who are exposed to graphic and/or emotional TV ads are more likely to attempt to quit smoking than smokers who don't see the ads.
To shed light on the economic devastation caused by tobacco around the world, the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation Monday held a unique event in Washington, DC to unveil the fourth edition of the Tobacco Atlas.
A new edition of the ACS CAN report How Do You Measure Up? shows that the majority of states are not measuring up on legislative solutions to prevent and fight cancer. The report ranks where states stand on these issues that play a critical role in reducing cancer incidence and death. It measures seven specific issues.
Illinois celebrated a major victory against Big Tobacco this week! Governor Pat Quinn signed into law yesterday morning a $1 cigarette tax increase, bringing the state cigarette tax to $1.98 a pack. With this increase, 38,600 Illinois lives will be saved, 72,700 Illinoisan kids will not start smoking and the state will raise $348.8 million in new revenue annually.
With all of the precincts reporting in, there are only 40,000 votes separating the yes votes from the no votes. However, estimates show more than 1 million mail-in and provisional ballots were left uncounted on election night. Therefore, ACS CAN and the campaign coalition are not conceding the election outcome, and we and our public health partners are pledging to fight for the health of Californians until every vote is counted.
I am pleased to share with you that U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced a bill last week that would eliminate disparities in the federal tax rates for various tobacco products, a proposal that will increase federal revenues and save lives.
I recently returned from one of the best events ACS CAN hosts all year the State Lead Ambassador Summit. With one in every state, State Lead Ambassadors (SLAs) are ACS CAN's top ranking grassroots volunteers. They coordinate all volunteer-led work across their state.
With almost 6 million people dying annually from smoking-related diseases, you can see how the tobacco industry has been able to earn incredible profits from addicting people to their products using manipulating, misleading practices. In fact, in 2010, the six leading tobacco companies in the world made a collective profit of $35.1 billion, the equivalent of the profits of Coca Cola, McDonalds and Microsoft combined.