Key findings
of the report include:
-
Over the
past 10 years, the states have received $203.5
billion in tobacco-generated revenue—$79.2 billion
from the tobacco settlement and $124.3 billion from
tobacco taxes. But they have spent only 3.2 percent
of their tobacco money—$6.5 billion—on tobacco
prevention and cessation programs.
-
This
year, no state is funding tobacco prevention
programs at the levels recommended by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only
nine states are funding tobacco prevention at even
half the CDC-recommended amount, and 27 states are
providing less than a quarter of the recommended
funding. (Beginning in fiscal 2010, North Dakota
will fund its prevention program at the
CDC-recommended level as a result of a state ballot
initiative approved on November 4.)
-
The
limited restrictions on tobacco marketing imposed by
the tobacco settlement have failed to curtail the
tobacco industry’s ability to aggressively market
its products. Annual tobacco marketing expenditures
have increased by 94 percent, from $6.9 billion in
1998 to $13.4 billion in 2005, the most recent year
for which the Federal Trade Commission has reported
such data. The tobacco companies spend nearly $19
to market tobacco products for every $1 the states
spend to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers
quit.
The report,
titled A Decade of Broken Promises: The 1998 State
Tobacco Settlement Ten Years Later, was released by
the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart
Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action
Network, American Lung Association and Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation.
The 10th
anniversary of the settlement comes as recent surveys
have shown that the nation has made significant progress
in reducing smoking in the past decade, but smoking
declines have slowed in recent years. From 1997 to 2007,
smoking rates declined by 45 percent among high school
students and by 20 percent among adults. But 20 percent
of high school students and 19.8 percent of adults still
smoke, and tobacco use remains the nation’s leading
cause of preventable death, killing more than 400,000
people and costing nearly $100 billion in health care
expenditures each year.
“Ten years
after the state tobacco settlement, we are at a
crossroads in the fight against tobacco use and its
devastating consequences,” said Matthew L. Myers,
president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “If
Congress and the states show the political will to
implement proven solutions, we will win one of the most
significant public health victories in our nation’s
history. If they fail to do so, it will be a tragic
missed opportunity for the nation’s health.”
To accelerate
declines in tobacco use—and eventually eliminate the
death and disease it causes—the report calls on Congress
and the states to follow the recommendations of recent
landmark reports by the Institute of Medicine and the
President’s Cancer Panel:
-
Congress
should enact legislation granting the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration authority to regulate the
manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco
products. The U.S. House of Representatives on July
30 voted 326 to 102 to approve this legislation, and
it has 60 sponsors in the Senate, including
President-elect Barack Obama and Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid.
-
Congress
should also significantly increase the federal
tobacco tax and utilize some of the revenue to fund
a national public education and smoking cessation
campaign.
-
The
states should fund tobacco prevention programs at
CDC-recommended levels, further increase tobacco
taxes and enact comprehensive smoke-free workplace
laws (24 states and the District of Columbia have
enacted such laws to date). The CDC has estimated
that if each state sustained the recommended level
of funding for tobacco prevention and cessation
programs for five years, five million fewer people
would smoke in the U.S., and hundreds of thousands
of premature deaths would be prevented.
“The nation’s
challenge today is to resist complacency and stay
focused on reducing tobacco use. The good news is that
we have the evidence and we know what to do,” said Risa
Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Making all workplaces
smoke-free, increasing taxes on tobacco products,
funding prevention programs at recommended levels and
helping smokers quit will help get us to the goal that
the Institute of Medicine has set for us — to eliminate
tobacco use as one of the most pressing public health
problems in the United States.”
“When states
properly fund tobacco prevention programs, the return on
investment is undeniable,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D.,
national chief executive officer of the American Cancer
Society Cancer Action Network. “This is a golden
opportunity to stop addiction before it starts for
generations to come. State governors and legislators
need to make every effort to seize this resource and
apply it to programs that not only prevent disease and
death, but also save money by lowering tobacco-related
health care costs.”
“This report
underscores the need for state officials to take a hard
look at the devastating impact of tobacco use in their
own communities,” said M. Cass Wheeler, CEO of the
American Heart Association. “They must reassess their
priorities and use the money for what it was originally
intended—to fund prevention and cessation programs and
break the cycle of addiction.”
“In these
economically challenged times, states cannot afford to
misuse tobacco settlement funds,” said Bernadette
Toomey, president and CEO of the American Lung
Association. “The crushing financial burden each state
must carry to address the very real costs associated
with tobacco-related death and disease will only
diminish when smoking rates begin to decline. Yet, the
bitter reality is that states are not using the money
for what it was intended.”
On November
23, 1998, 46 states settled their lawsuits against the
major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related
health care costs, joining four states (Mississippi,
Texas, Florida and Minnesota) that had reached earlier,
individual settlements. The settlements require the
tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states
in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246
billion over the first 25 years.
The states
also collect billions of dollars each year in tobacco
taxes. Since the tobacco settlement, 44 states and the
District of Columbia have raised cigarette tax rates 90
times, increasing the average state cigarette tax from
39 cents to $1.19 per pack today. Raising cigarette
prices is one of the most effective ways to prevent kids
from smoking and encourage smokers to quit.
This year
alone, the states will collect $24.6 billion in revenue
from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will
spend less than three percent of it on tobacco
prevention programs. It would take just 15 percent of
this tobacco revenue to fund tobacco prevention programs
in every state at CDC-recommended levels.
(NOTE:
The CDC recently updated its recommended funding for
state tobacco prevention programs, taking into account
new science, population increases, inflation and other
cost factors. In most cases, the new recommendations
are higher than previous ones. This report is the first
to assess the states based on these new
recommendations.)
Contacts
for Journalists
Joel Spivak
Office: (202) 296-5469
