Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the purpose of the Smoke Free Society Education Center?

Smoking Free Society Education is committed to making education and awareness the key tools in curbing smoking and tobacco use by establishing the first-of-its-kind education and research facility – a permanent campus-style think tank center that solely focuses on smoking and tobacco use prevention, education, awareness and cessation as the American Cancer Society is to cancer.

July 10, 2006; WASHINGTON (AP) - Tobacco could kill 1 billion people this century! If current trends hold, tobacco will kill a billion people this century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century, public health officials said Monday. Reducing tobacco use would have the greatest affect on global cancer rates, health officials said.

2. What key outreach activities will the Center provide?

The Center will provide, host and facilitate ongoing seminars, conferences and conventions that bring together smoking cessation professionals, physicians, psychologists, substance abuse specialists and other experts from around the nation and world to study, share and exchange ideas, facts and solutions to:

• Develop and provide the most-effective educational and prevention programs to help educate our precious children to prevent them from a lifelong enslavement to smoking and tobacco use and;

• Develop the most-effective means and tools to educate smokers to better understand the nature of their smoking habit and nicotine addiction and how to more successfully quit and stay smoke free and; 

• Educate the general public on the hazards of smoking and address issues such as smoke-free workplace and public laws and their implementation without creating millions of second-class citizens - smokers. And find solutions and guidelines to help with the transition from a smoking to a nonsmoking workplace and society and;

• Put solutions back into the community that further encourage community support, involvement and private donations for this most important cause of the 21st century that can tremendously improve and promote a healthy lifestyle that can lead to increased productivity, cost savings and eliminating disability, disease and death caused by smoking and tobacco use and;

• Nationally, to provide facilities in conjunction with local communities, schools, other civic and governmental institutions to further expand its outreach.  

3. What is the scope of the smoking problem, especially among our youth? 

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for more than 440,000 deaths each year. In Florida, nearly 29,000 deaths are attributable to tobacco use annually, and the threat of tobacco is greatest among youth. In fact, more than 35,900 (over 1 million nationally) children under the age of 18 become new, daily smokers each year and about one-third of those will eventually lose their lives to this addiction. Currently, 296,900 (over 6.4 million nationally) kids under the age of 18 living in Florida today will eventually die prematurely from smoking.

June 28, 2008, CDC - Atlanta, Georgia - Decline in Teen Smoking Hits a Wall! The campaign to reduce teenagers' smoking has stalled. This has very negative, long-term implications. The newly released data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that one of the nation's most-important public health priorities is faltering. The smoking rate among teenagers has shot up to 23%! (more)

July 6, 2006, Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) - Smoking rate among high school students remains constant Nearly one in four high school students were smokers last year, a 23% rate that has not budged in several years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

4. How is the youth tobacco prevention and education program funded?

Florida receives more than $360 million annually from the tobacco settlement, and with the passage of Florida Constitutional Amendment 4 this past November, 15% of this annual settlement money is now being set aside each year for the remaining 15 years of the settlement to educate Florida’s youth about the dangers of tobacco use. See Amendment 4 for details.

Nevertheless, marketing by the tobacco industry is higher in Florida than in any other state. In 2005, a staggering $1.262 billion (of the $15.4 billion nationally) was spent by the tobacco industry to market their products to a new generation of Florida smokers. By utilizing tobacco settlement money to fund a comprehensive, statewide tobacco education and prevention program in Florida, the state can help combat these efforts to keep kids tobacco-free.

More importantly, by preventing kids from becoming adult smokers, Florida can help reduce the enormous financial costs and taxpayer burdens associated with smoking. The current annual healthcare costs directly caused by smoking total $5.82 billion in Florida, with an additional $5.86 billion in lost productivity. This amounts to Florida taxpayers handing over $554 per household, per year, to help pay for the state’s smoking burden.   Click here to go back

5. What is the history of Florida’s Youth Tobacco Control Program?

On August 25, 1997, Florida won a landmark legal victory against the tobacco industry ($11.3 billion out-of-court settlement to be paid out over 25 years) to recover the costs incurred in caring for sick smokers. Governor Lawton Chiles and the state Legislature used a portion of the funds generated from this settlement to create the Florida Youth Tobacco Control Program – providing between $37.3 million and $70 million for the program during the following five budget years. (Click here to read the settlement document)

Florida’s program was the first in the country to be funded by a court settlement with the tobacco industry, the first to focus solely on young people and the first to have youth as leaders. Despite its proven success in reducing smoking rates among middle and high school students, funding for the program was drastically cut to $1 million per year by the Florida Legislature during the past three years forcing Floridians to take this important matter in their own hands by putting Amendment 4 on the 2006 ballot that passed overwhelmingly by the voters.

July 6, 2006, ATLANTA, Georgia (CDC) – Smoking rate among high school students remains constant! Nearly one in four high school students were smokers last year, a rate that has not budged in several years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The CDC's National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys said last year's figure of 23 percent is the most current available.

6. Was Florida’s Youth Tobacco Control Program successful?

Yes. The average funding level during the five-year period that Florida’s Youth Tobacco Control Program was funded by the Legislature was $47 million. Statistics show that at that funding level, Florida’s tobacco prevention efforts were highly effective. Until the funding was dramatically cut by the Legislature, smoking rates dropped 58 percent among middle school students and 37 percent among high school students. This decline represented more than 128,000 fewer youth smokers and nearly 49,000 fewer premature smoking deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health.

7. Who and what organizations are supporting this initiative?

Recognizing this critical public-health issue and the benefits of such a vital organization and its research and education Center, more and more caring individuals, elected representatives, civic and government leaders, private and nonprofit organizations, health groups, child-welfare organizations and medical professionals are expected to become actively involved and are signing up to endorse and offer their support.

Please click here to see the growing list of the supporters as well as to sign up to support this most-important cause and initiative of the 21st century that can save our loved ones' health and wealth for generations to come.