States Spend Less Than 2 cents of Tobacco $ on Reduction

States will collect a record $25.7 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes this year, but will spend just 1.8 percent of it—less than two cents of every dollar—on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a new report released by a coalition of public health organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Total state funding for tobacco prevention amounts to just 12.4 percent of the $3.7 billion that the CDC recommends for all the states combined. Only two states, Alaska and North Dakota, currently fund tobacco prevention programs at the CDC-recommended level. 

 As the nation implements health care reform, the report titled “Broken Promises to Our Children,” warns that states are missing the opportunity to reduce tobacco-related health care costs which total $96 billion every year in the United States.

 Written by Gustavo Torrez, Program Manager, The Network for LGBT Health Equity. EMPOWERED: Taking on CDC . Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com