American Lung Association Report Card: Most States Flunk

Cancer is the word for today whether its breasts good news for women or lung bad news for all of us. It's not enough to just not smoke - it seems we've also got to actively education the next generation on the evils of tobacco. That is According to the American Lung Association (ALA). The ALA, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) announced in December that the problem is so bad, though improving, they used the "E" word. There is a tobacco epidemic. While the CDC and WHO are defending their actions on the H1N1 against unfounded charges of corporation corruption both agencies are moving forward.

Do you know how much money Big Tobacco spent each day in 2006 marketing their products? $34 million. The companies spend billions each year on advertising & marketing their deadly products to try & hook kids to become their “replacement generation.” That’s why it’s so important that the Food and Drug Administration move quickly to implement new marketing restrictions on the tobacco companies. (American Lung Association)

Unfortunately the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has to count and review exactly what the public wants them to do. Deadline for public comment was extended until December 2009 and the agency hasn't released any comments to the public since the agency's request for comment.

The report finds the federal government made major strides but still has significant room for progress. Most state governments, however, failed to enact critical measures to protect people from deadly tobacco products. Ten states made alarming cuts to their tobacco control programs.

Tobacco's toll continues to be devastating. Smoking-caused illness remains the number-one preventable cause of death in the U.S., killing more than 393,000 Americans each year and costing the economy more than $193 billion. Another 50,000 Americans die from exposure to secondhand smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General has declared there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

No state received straight “A’s” on its report card. Six received all “F’s.” They are Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. (PDF)

Only two states, Alaska and North Dakota, received “A” grades for funding tobacco prevention and control programs at 80 percent or more of the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Research shows that the more states spend on comprehensive tobacco control programs, the greater the reductions in smoking—and the longer states invest in such programs, the greater and faster the impact. States that invest more fully in comprehensive tobacco control programs have seen cigarette sales drop more than twice as much as in the United States as a whole, and smoking prevalence among adults and youth has declined faster as spending for tobacco control programs has increased. (CDC Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control) (PDF)

No state received an “A” for offering comprehensive tobacco cessation treatments to its Medicaid recipients and to state employees.

Tobacco Control 2009 DC MD NC VA US Tobacco Prevention & Control Spending Smokefree Air Cigarette Tax Cessation Coverage Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products F A B D F A C F F F F C F F F F D F D A OVERALL GRADE AVERAGE C D D F C

Despite a perception that smoking is a dying public health danger, the tobacco epidemic persists. It causes tragedy, staggering costs and devastation. In 2008, the latest year for which data is available, smoking in the U.S. failed to decline for the first time in years, staying right around 20 percent. Forty-six million adults smoke. The nation’s progress in ending the epidemic has halted, according to the CDC.

Each year approximately 440,000 people die of a smoking-related disease in the United States. (CDC) The World Health Organization (WHO) says internationally about 600,000 premature deaths per year, countless crippling and disfiguring illnesses and economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars per year.

The rates for our jurisdictions with figures from 2006 and estimates from 2007 CDC death rates. In the District of Columbia and North Carolina the numbers 1 and 2 causes of death are in order: Cancer and Heart Disease. The third cause of death in the DC is Accidents. For Maryland, Virginia and the US as a whole the results are reversed and numbers are 1 and 2 causes of death are in order: Heart Disease and Cancer. The third cause of death for MD, NC, VA and most of the US is Cerebrovascular disease (High blood pressure).

What has to be noted is the District of Columbia has no ability to raise taxes on tobacco without Congressional permission from "tobacco growing" state legislators. However MD, NC and VA have no such restrictions.