(March 15, 2012)
Funding for the state tobacco control program has been cut to less than half of 2008 levels, and now the Governor and N.Y.S. Senate want to cut out $5 Million more.
Since 2008, calls to the N.Y.S. Smokers’ Quitline from central N.Y. have dropped 48%. Is it because there are no more CNY smokers who want to quit, or because there is no money to promote and perform the services they need and want?
State of Tobacco Control Report Card from the American Lung Association:
-- Spending for prevention: F (spending is 21% of CDC recommended level).
-- Cessation service coverage: F (Quitline investment per smoker is 17% of CDC recommended level).
-- Cigarette Tax per pack: A ($4.35… The HIGHEST in the U.S.)
New York has raised $10.5 billion in tobacco revenues (excise tax and settlement $$) over the past six years, yet less than four percent has been spent on tobacco control programs. Only about four pennies of every dollar raised by tobacco taxes goes to help people quit smoking.
The tobacco industry spends $10.5 billion A YEAR nationwide promoting cigarette sales. They claim that is only aimed at getting current adult smokers to switch brands.
Your elected officials want to know your views on state funding for tobacco control.
The U.S. Surgeon General Report released last week (March 8) states the following:
“Numerous studies over many years have consistently concluded that comprehensive state tobacco control programs … have been effective at not only reducing tobacco use by youth and young adults, but also … in overall reductions in smoking prevalence and concomitant decreases in state spending on tobacco-related health care.”
“Providing and sustaining sufficient funding for comprehensive community programs, statewide tobacco control programs, school-based policies and programs, and mass media campaigns must be a priority.”
Your elected officials want to know your views on state funding for tobacco control.
The Problem*
- New York has raised $10.5 billion in tobacco revenues over the past six years, yet less than four percent has been spent on tobacco control programs. Only about four pennies of every dollar raised by tobacco taxes goes to help people quit smoking.
- Over the past three years funding for the tobacco control program has been cut in half. In the current fiscal year, New York will spend on tobacco control a mere two percent of tobacco revenues, and only 16 percent of the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Tobacco use takes a terrible toll on New York. In 2009, 25,400 lives were prematurely lost due to tobacco use. Tobacco costs New Yorkers an estimated $8.17 billion in health care costs, including $2.7 billion in Medicaid costs as a result of tobacco use.
- Tobacco control programs have been proven to reduce youth smoking and help current smokers to quit. When more adequately funded, the New York tobacco control programs achieved successes in the effort to curb tobacco use, especially in preventing young people from becoming smokers. Teenage and adult tobacco use rates have fallen faster in New York than in the U.S. as a whole. In 2010, 12.6 percent of teenagers, and 15.5 percent of adults, were smokers.
- Limited funding prevents the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program from reaching the most vulnerable populations with the highest rates of smoking. Increasingly, the burden of tobacco taxes falls most heavily on those least able to pay.
What Could Be Done with More Resources
- Target more resources to adult cessation. Achieving near-term reductions in tobacco use rates, and the incidence of tobacco-caused disease, will best be accomplished by encouraging adult smokers to quit and providing resources to help them succeed. Only by motivating smokers to attempt to quit smoking and providing the pressure, resources, and support to make those attempts successful will near-term smoking rates decline, disease rates decline, premature deaths decline, and economic savings accrue. Most smokers want to quit, and encouraging and assisting adult cessation is a cost-effective tobacco control strategy.
- Increase community level interventions, especially in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and rural areas. To change social norms a program must be well integrated into a community. Program personnel must understand and, preferably, live in, the communities they work in.
- Increase funding for anti-smoking media messages, and target messages to those, such as the poor, those living in rural areas, and non-English speakers, that the program has not been reaching.
- Develop and implement strategies for reaching those with mental illness or addictive disorders: People with mental illness smoke at a rate almost twice that of the general public. Increasingly, tobacco use is concentrated in this population, and if the problem is not addressed now, the burden of tobacco use will increasingly fall on those least able to absorb it.
*Prepared by the American Cancer Society. Issued by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Associtation, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the League of Women Voters, and NYPRIG.
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