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Anti-Smoking Programs
Underfunded, Group Says
Wed Nov 12, 1:03 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - States that cashed in on a landmark
$246 billion settlement with tobacco companies five years ago are spending little on
programs to curb smoking, an anti-smoking group charged on Wednesday.
With budgets stretched thin, most of the 46 states that joined the 1998 tobacco
settlement are using only a fraction of the funding that health officials recommend for
anti-tobacco efforts, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
"The states' funding of tobacco prevention and cessation is woefully inadequate
given the magnitude of the tobacco problem," the organization said in findings to be
presented to a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.
States have cut spending on anti-smoking programs by more than 25 percent during the
last two years, the group said.
In the 2004 fiscal year, the report says, states plan to spend a total of $541.1
million on anti-tobacco programs, down from $749.7 million in 2002.
The settlement with major cigarette makers was designed to help the states cover
tobacco-related health costs. It includes Altria Group Inc's Philip Morris USA, R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc, British American Tobacco PLC's Brown & Williamson, and
Loews Corp's Lorillard.
Smoking-related illnesses cause about 400,000 deaths a year in the United States and
cost $75 billion a year to treat, according to the report.
The states collectively will rake in $19.5 billion in tobacco-related revenues this
year, including taxes and settlement money, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids said.
Thirty-three of the states are spending less than half the minimum amount recommended
by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news
- web
sites), the report says.
The minimum spending recommended by the CDC usually amounts to 20 percent to 25 percent
of a state's annual settlement proceeds.
Only four states -- Maine, Delaware, Mississippi and Arkansas -- are still funding
anti-tobacco campaigns to the level advised by the CDC, said the Tobacco Free Kids group.
The cuts have "decimated" three of the most successful anti-smoking programs
in Florida, Massachusetts and Oregon, the group said.
At the same time, cigarette makers pumped up their marketing budgets by 66 percent in
the three years following the settlement to a record $11.45 billion a year, the group's
report said.
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