Four states tie for last place on tobacco prevention funding league table

Ohio is one of four US states that have budgeted no funds for tobacco prevention programs this year, according to a Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) press note issued through PRNewswire.

‘This is the third year in a row that Ohio has provided zero state funding for tobacco prevention,’ the note said.

‘The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDCP] recommends that Ohio provide $145 million a year for tobacco prevention programs.’

Ohio this year will collect $1.1 billion in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes.

These figures form part of the annual report on states’ funding of tobacco prevention programs, titled ‘Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 14 Years Later’, which was released by the CTFK, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

The other states that tied with Ohio at the bottom of the funding league were New Jersey, New Hampshire and North   Carolina.

But the report finds that most states are failing adequately to fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

It says that states this year will collect $25.7 billion from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 1.8 per cent of it – $459.5 million – on tobacco prevention programs. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use.

Overall, the states are said to be falling ‘woefully short’ of the CDCP’s recommended funding levels for tobacco prevention programs.