Legislative Leaders, Public Health Officials Urge Passage of Measures To Combat Tobacco Use – Bills Will Save Lives, Protect Kids

TRENTON, NJ – The state and nation’s leading public health groups joined forces with Senate and Assembly leaders today to urge passage of bills that will vastly improve the state’s tobacco control efforts. A3338 and S862 will protect kids and save lives by increasing funding for the state’s Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program, specifically by dedicating one percent of tobacco tax revenues to fund anti-smoking initiatives. S359 and A2320 will prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21.

New Jersey’s funding of its tobacco prevention and cessation program is among the worst in the nation. The state has not allocated any state money to its tobacco control program since FY 2012, ranking it last among all states, year after year. The health coalition released a new report – “Keeping the Promise: Comprehensive Tobacco Prevention and Cessation for New Jersey, A Win-Win Solution for New Jersey’s Health and Economy” – that details the problem and solution. The coalition comprises the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, among others.

Tobacco use remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in New Jersey – killing 11,800 adults and costing the state over $4 billion in health care costs each year. Annually, 3,900 kids become new daily smokers. And 143,000 kids alive in New Jersey today will die prematurely from smoking – unless policymakers act now to fix the problem.

“As a sponsor of the Tobacco 21 bill and a strong supporter of dedicating tobacco tax revenue to prevention and cessation, I am committed to working to make sure that New Jersey takes the steps necessary to improve the health of our residents,” said Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, Chair of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. “We cannot continue to allow thousands of lives to be lost each year and to continue to see billions of dollars in preventable health care costs expended, without taking action. New Jersey must dedicate funding to help our residents, and we have to begin now.”

“Even as we have made progress reducing tobacco use in the state, we continue to leave many of our most vulnerable citizens behind,” said Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr., Chair of the Health and Senior Services Committee. “Tobacco use – and the illness and premature death it causes – disproportionately impact the young, poor, uneducated, and those with mental illness and substance abuse problems. We have to do better.”

About 13.5 percent of adults in New Jersey still smoke (more than 939,000 people). Smoking rates remain notably higher among certain subpopulations. For example, smoking rates are higher among African Americans (18.0 percent), those with only a high school education or GED (18.8 percent), those with lower income (22.4 percent for those making less than $15,000 per year) and those with Medicaid coverage (23 percent).

The funding measures would guarantee $7 million for the state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program. While that amount would still be a tiny fraction of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends New Jersey spend – just 6.8 percent – at least it would represent an important first step toward rebuilding tobacco control efforts in the state.

Funding the program at the $7 million level would yield great benefits, including:

Fewer N.J. kids growing up to become addicted adult smoker 3,230

Fewer N.J. kids growing up to die prematurely from smoking 1,100

Decrease in future health care expenditures in state $67.8 million

In FY 2017, New Jersey received over $944 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement payments as well as from tobacco taxes. The tobacco settlement was meant to provide funds to support state tobacco prevention efforts; so far, New Jersey has broken its promise to New Jersey kids by failing to invest the tobacco settlement payments to efforts to prevent and reduce tobacco use and its harms.

“New Jersey lawmakers must drastically increase funding for the state’s Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program so it can do the vital work of preventing our children from smoking and helping smokers quit – saving lives and money,” said Joan Helfman, Chair of the Northern New Jersey Board of Directors, American Heart Association.

“New Jersey’s tobacco prevention and cessation program is a critical part of the fight against cancer and other tobacco related disease,” said Brian Shott, Director of Government Relations, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “Investing in this program would produce declines in tobacco use and would result in both short and long term public health and economic benefits.”

Every scientific authority that has studied the issue – including the Surgeon General, the CDC, the Institute of Medicine, the President’s Cancer Panel and the National Cancer Institute – has concluded that when properly funded, implemented and sustained, tobacco prevention and cessation programs reduce smoking among both kids and adults, by both increasing the number of people who quit or cut back on smoking and reducing the numbers who start or relapse.

Legislators and the public health representatives also renewed efforts to raise the tobacco sale age in New Jersey from 19 to 21. To date, California, Hawaii and at least 240 localities across the country have raised the tobacco age to 21. A March 2015 report by the prestigious Institute of Medicine concluded that raising the tobacco age to 21 would significantly reduce smoking among youth and young adults and have other health benefits.

“Increasing the tobacco age to 21 will reduce tobacco use among youth and young adults – age groups when nearly all tobacco use begins and that are heavily targeted by the tobacco industry,” said Amy Barkley, Regional Advocacy Director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “We know that 95 percent of adult smokers began smoking before they turned 21. If we can get young people to age 21 as non-smokers, they almost certainly never will become smokers. Raising the age of sale to 21 will also help keep tobacco out of high schools, where younger teens often obtain tobacco products from older students.”

Tobacco companies, meanwhile, are spending over $175 million annually on marketing and promoting their products in the state. Many of these efforts target specific populations and are meant to encourage youth to start smoking, either by making the products look attractive or by lowering the prices to make their products accessible to price-sensitive youth.

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