Overview
Introduction
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What's New: National Tobacco Policy Section
The State of Tobacco Control 2004 report has added a new section that examines national tobacco control policy. This section will review national policies regarding regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration, cessation, cigarette taxes and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international tobacco control treaty. |
Each year, the American Lung Association assesses tobacco control policies enacted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. This year the report has been expanded to also include important national tobacco control policies.
At the national level, the American Lung Association State of Tobacco Control 2004 report found little progress toward a federal tobacco control policy. Once again, Congress failed to enact legislation granting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products. Despite causing over 440,000 deaths each year, tobacco products remain unregulated. Congress also failed to support a comprehensive plan to provide tobacco cessation coverage and services to the millions of Americans addicted to tobacco products. Disappointingly, the United States lagged behind other countries by failing to ratify the international tobacco control treaty--the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
At the state level, the American Lung Association State of Tobacco Control 2004 report found more success. There was a steady increase in the number of state and local communities passing comprehensive smokefree air laws and dramatic increases in state cigarette excise taxes. Unfortunately, the report also found that states continued to underfund critical tobacco prevention programs. These cuts occurred in spite of the mounting evidence that tobacco prevention programs save lives and money.
It has been 40 years since the first surgeon general’s report on tobacco was released. Since that time, 27 additional studies have concluded that tobacco use is the single most avoidable cause of disease, disability and death in the United States. 1 As a result of tobacco prevention efforts, the annual prevalence of adult smoking has declined 46.9 percent.2 Approximately 70 percent of the U.S. workforce is now protected by a smokefree workplace policy.3 Today, there are more former smokers than current smokers and each year nearly 40% of current smokers try to quit.4
Smoking causes about 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and almost 80 percent in women.7
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Yet, the news is not all promising. To mark the anniversary of the first Surgeon General's report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a follow-up report, The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General 2004. The report’s findings were alarming. It found that smoking harms nearly every organ in the body and that it causes cancer in areas not previously linked to smoking including cancer of the kidney, cervix and bone marrow and respiratory diseases such as pneumonia.5 Each year in the United States 440,000 people die of a tobacco-related illness and 5.6 million years of potential life are lost. The economic costs are startling with more than $157 billion attributable to smoking annually.6 In response to these findings, the Surgeon General called for the nation to remain vigilant in its smoking prevention efforts.
Bold action is required to stem the death and addiction caused by tobacco products. In 2004, a few states heeded the Surgeon General's call and passed strong tobacco control policies. For example, Idaho, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island passed strong laws to protect workers and patrons from exposure to secondhand smoke. Michigan, New Jersey and Rhode Island raised their cigarettes taxes to $2.00 per pack or higher.
Smoking causes more than 90 percent of deaths from COPD each year.8
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Yet, many state legislatures in 2004 failed to enact the comprehensive tobacco control policies needed to address the continuing tobacco epidemic. Far too many states are shirking their responsibility to enact laws that would provide adequate funding for tobacco prevention and control programs, protect their citizens from secondhand smoke, deter consumption of cigarettes sold by raising the cigarette tax and keep cigarettes out of the hands of children and teens.
The nation can and should do better. This American Lung Association report calls on Congress, the administration, state legislators and governors to save lives and protect health by passing strong and effective tobacco control policies.
The tobacco industry is a powerful lobby with virtually unlimited resources. Many states have hard-working tobacco control coalitions that continually meet with strong resistance from their state legislators and tobacco interests. The grades given in this report in no way reflect the degree of effort expended by the public health community. Quite simply, the grades reflect how well tobacco control laws measure up to the best in the nation or goals set by federal agencies such as CDC.
Continue to Key Findings... |
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