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Great American Smokeout Marked With Call for Increased Tobacco Cessation Funding
November 19, 2013
Ongoing Cuts to State Funding To Blame for Stagnant Smoking Rates
Albany, NY (November 19, 2013) – Cancer advocates are celebrating the American Cancer Society’s 38th annual Great American Smokeout on November 21 by calling on state legislators to increase funding for the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program. The Great American Smokeout was started to encourage tobacco users to make a plan to quit. Research shows strong tobacco legislation, including comprehensive smoke-free laws, increased tobacco taxes and funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs are the most effective ways to help people do just that.
Unfortunately, New York’s diminished funding for the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program will likely mean a lackluster response to this year’s Great American Smokeout. Recent data from the 2012 Independent Evaluation of New York State’s Tobacco Control Program illustrated a 40 percent drop in calls to the New York State Smokers’ Quitline. It is no coincidence that New York has also significantly scaled back efforts which encourage smokers to quit and inform the public about various resources, like the quitline, to help them through this difficult process.
The New York Smokers’ Quitline is a toll free number that smokers can call for information about smoking cessation resources and general support from a “Quit Counselor”. Statistics indicate that when well-funded, New York State’s Smokers’ Quitline and overall tobacco prevention and cessation program worked. However, over the last six years, New York has cut funding for tobacco control in half. As funding dropped, so did calls to the Quitline.
“Once upon a time, New York State was a national tobacco control pioneer,” said Michael Burgess, state director of advocacy for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society. “We were once ranked fifth in the country on tobacco control, now we’re 21st. The Quitline is a fantastic resource, however, the state is failing to promote and maintain it. Meanwhile, tobacco continues to kill 25,000 New Yorkers every year. We must significantly increase funding before these numbers grow even higher.”
The bulk of the cuts to New York’s tobacco control program have occurred in the state’s public health media campaign, which includes promotion of the Smokers’ Quitline. Data indicates that there is a direct relationship between the decline in tobacco control funding and the sharp decline in calls to the Quitline, which is exactly what New York is seeing. Since 2009, funding has been slashed by 50 percent, at the same time, Quitline calls have fallen by 40 percent.
While smoking has decreased significantly since the 1950s, more than 43 million Americans – nearly one in five adults – still smoke, according to the American Cancer Society. This includes 18 percent of adults in in New York State.
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.
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