Public Health, Faith Leaders Call on DC Council to Renew Funding for Successful Tobacco Preventio...(han $175 million in future health care s...),Health

Despite this progress, tobacco use is still the leading preventable cause of death in DC, annually claiming more than 700 lives and costing the District $243 million in health care bills. Sixteen percent of adults and one in ten youth still smoke. While youth smoking has declined since 2003, the most recent data show a slight increase in youth smoking, from 9.2 percent to 10.6 percent.

There are also alarming disparities in tobacco use in the District. In Ward 8, for example, while progress has been made in reducing tobacco use from 32 percent to 26 percent in the last three years, it still has a smoking rate ten percentage points above the overall rate for DC.

Other key findings of the report include:

• DC has plenty of tobacco-generated revenue from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes to fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs. The requested funding of $3.6 million amounts to less than five percent of the $74.9 million in tobacco revenue DC will collect this year. (Ideally, DC should spend even more on tobacco prevention and cessation programs as the CDC recommends the District spend $10.5 million a year on such programs).
• Tobacco companies spend $16 million a year to market their deadly and addictive products. $3.6 million amounts to less than a quarter of this amount.
  

About DC Tobacco Free Families (DCTFF):

DCTFF is a partnership of the American Cancer Society (ACS), the American Lung Association of DC (ALADC), and the DC Department of Health (DOH), with funding from the District's tobacco settlement funds. DCTFF provides community-based grants, quitline services, free nicotine replacement therapy, youth prevention programs, and a mass media campaign, all designed to encourage District smoke
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