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American
Lung Association's 2005 Report on Smoking Prevention
Tuesday, January 10, 2006;
A handful of states are
doing a commendable job in reducing smoking and harm from tobacco, but most
are not and the federal government is failing almost completely, according
to a review by the American Lung Association.
In its fourth annual
state of tobacco control report, the association gave 40 states and the
District an F for their use of billions of dollars paid by tobacco
companies under a 1998 master settlement of their suits against the
industry. The report said the states had not met minimum standards for
spending on programs that prevent people from smoking and help smokers to
stop.
The federal government
earned largely failing grades from the group for its lagging efforts to
control tobacco use. It earned F's for its low taxes on cigarettes, its
failure to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate
tobacco, and its minimal funding of anti-smoking efforts. The Bush
administration got a D for signing an international treaty to curb tobacco
use but declining to send it to the Senate for confirmation.
All was not bleak,
however. In a first, the association granted one state -- Maine -- an A in all four categories
of state tobacco control it graded: efforts to keep public places
smoke-free, cigarette taxes, effectiveness of programs to keep cigarettes
from young people and overall tobacco control spending.
"Some states are
taking the initiative on reducing tobacco use, but I'd have to say there's
a real lack of leadership and initiative on the federal level," said
John L. Kirkwood, president of the organization. With even tobacco-growing
states such as Kentucky raising their cigarette taxes,
he said, the federal government's failure to raise the 39-cents-a-pack
federal excise tax for almost a decade is noteworthy.
Most experts say
raising the price of cigarettes is the quickest way to reduce smoking,
although several state anti-smoking campaigns also have been effective.
Those campaigns were
supposed to be increasingly well funded under the 1998 Master Settlement
Agreement between the tobacco industry and the states and the District,
under which the industry will pay more than $240 billion over 25 years to
compensate for past and future health care costs stemming from its
products. The companies already have distributed more than $55 billion, but
less than 10 percent of that money has gone for smoking-prevention programs
-- about one-third of the amount recommended as a minimum by the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the
report, only Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi and
Wyoming have committed substantial
amounts of settlement money to smoking prevention.
Tobacco control
advocates, including those at the century-old American Lung Association,
are particularly discouraged that President Bush has not sent to the Senate
the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's
first public health treaty. The United States signed the treaty but, unlike
the more than 100 nations that have ratified it, has made no effort to
ratify and implement it.
-- Marc Kaufman
State Specific Report from American Lung
Association Indicates "Youth Access" is the Only Successful
Component in Texas
TEXAS - BEHIND THE SCENES
The American Lung
Association of Texas works in conjunction with several other organizations
in a coalition, Texans Investing in Healthy Families, to restrict youth
access to tobacco products and reduce tobacco use among youth and adults.
Two major components of the coalition's efforts are: 1)
raising the per pack tax on tobacco products by $1.00, and 2)
dedicating a nickel of that increase to a statewide comprehensive tobacco
prevention and cessation program. It has been 15 years since Texas last raised its cigarette tax.
During the 2005
legislative session, Texas legislators were unable to pass
sweeping reforms that included an increase in the cigarette tax. During the
79th Regular Session, the Texas Senate passed a cigarette tax increase of
$0.75 per pack as part of its tax bill, up from the $0.60 increase it was
initially expected to pass. The House passed a $1.01 tax increase. The
American Lung Association of Texas was able to get a rider placed in
Article 11 to dedicate $26 million over the biennium to the Department of State Health Services tobacco prevention
and cessation program. However, this rider was contingent on the tobacco
tax being raised. Because the General Appropriations Act passed while the
tax increase was still in conference committee, there was no opportunity to
ask for money to be appropriated. The Regular Session ended without a tax
or school finance bill. The call for the First Special Session was limited
to taxation for public education, so there was no direct opportunity to
move new tobacco revenue into this line item for public health. A Second
Special Session was called but it did not result in a school finance bill
or tax reform bill.
On the local front, Austin became virtually smokefree on September 1, 2005. In May, voters approved a stringent smoking ordinance
that bans smoking almost everywhere in the city, including the 200 bars and
live music venues. This was a hard and long battle, first with the Austin
City Council and then a campaign to obtain 36,000 signatures to get the measure
on the ballot. The ban was supported by Onward Austin, a coalition of
public health groups that included the American Lung Association of Texas.
Onward Austin spent significant resources to
gather the necessary petition signatures, and to educate the public and
mobilize voters.
Fighting tobacco use is
a high priority for the American Lung Association of Texas. During 2005,
the Association spent $911,000 on prevention, cessation, and control
programs.
 http://lungaction.org/reports/tobacco-control05.html
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