How You Can Help Hold Big Tobacco Accountable
Nearly 20 years ago, a U.S. Federal District judge found that the major cigarette manufacturers violated civil racketeering laws for deliberately defrauding the public.
News
Smoking Rates Exceed National Average in Parts of NYS
November 14, 2012
Great American Smokeout Offers Chance for Governor, Legislature to Commit to Increased Funding for Tobacco Programs
Statement from Blair Horner, VP for Advocacy, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, NJ and NY re: the Great American Smokeout and the need for increased funding for programs that help smokers quit
“Smokers across New York will vow to kick the tobacco addiction during the American Cancer Society’s 37th annual Great American Smokeout. Yet, far too many New Yorkers haven’t been able to beat that addiction – and in some parts of the state, the smoking rate exceeds the national average.
As a map of smoking rates shows, rates are generally low downstate, mainly due to aggressive local tobacco control efforts launched in the 1980s, and high upstate.
The Great American Smokeout offers the Governor and the Legislature an opportunity to help smokers quit and to keep kids from smoking by boosting support for the state’s tobacco control program.
The New York State Tobacco Control Program is funded at $41.4 million and has been cut in half over the past few years. An independent review recently recommended that the program be funded at $85 million and increased gradually to the $254 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York State generates over $2 billion annually from tobacco taxes and other tobacco revenues.
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network requests the Governor to react to the tobacco menace in New York by proposing increased funding for the state Tobacco Control Program in his 2013-2014 Executive Budget.”
Smoking Rates in New York State by County
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About the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
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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