Report Shows Progress in Fight Against Cancer, but Congress, States Must Step Up Efforts to Reduce Smoking, L... (ealth warnings on tobacco products; requ...)

Report Shows Progress in Fight Against Cancer, but Congress, States Must Step Up Efforts to Reduce Smoking, Lung Cancer

Date:11/26/2008

ealth warnings on tobacco products; require tobacco companies to disclose the contents of tobacco products; grant the FDA authority to regulate the contents of tobacco products; and stop tobacco companies from making misleading or unproven health claims.

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.

Every state should fund a tobacco prevention and cessation program at the level recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unfortunately, as a report released last week by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and our partners showed, no state is currently meeting the CDC's recommendation, and only nine states are funding prevention programs at even half the CDC's recommendation. In the last 10 years, the states have received $203.5 billion in tobacco-generated revenue from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but have spent only 3.2 percent of it ($6.5 billion) on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

The states should also enact comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws and further increase tobacco taxes. To date, 24 states and the District of Columbia have enacted smoke-free laws that include restaurants and bars. Every state should do so. While 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased tobacco taxes in recent years, there are vast disparities in state tobacco tax rates, from 7 cents per pack in South Carolina and 17 cents in Missouri to $2.75 in New York and $2.58 in New Jersey.

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing the nation nearly $100 billion in health care bills each year. While our n
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Report Shows Progress in Fight Against Cancer, but Congress, States Must Step Up Efforts to Reduce Smoking, L...(ealth warnings on tobacco products; requ...),Health