Still up in smoke

In the last 10 years, the states have spent just 3.2 percent of their total tobacco-generated revenue on tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

So finds the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and reported in their newly released study. By 1998, all fifty states had reached settlement with the tobacco industry to recover healthcare costs related to smoking. The multi-state settlement, known as the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) imposed not only restrictions on the marketing of tobacco but required "the tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years." The Campaign's report states:

Ten years after the November 1998 state tobacco settlement, we find that most states have failed to keep their promise to use a significant portion of the settlement funds to reduce tobacco's terrible toll on America's children, families and communities.

Although receiving $203.5 billion in tobacco revenue, states only used $6.5 billion for tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

Ranking all states, the study found no state to be funding tobacco prevention programs at levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only nine states fund tobacco prevention at even half the CDC’s recommended amount. Hawaii is ranked 4, funding $11.3 million for FY2009, 74.3% of the CD's recommendation of $15.2 million.

While states cut funding for tobacco prevention, tobacco companies dramatically increased marketing expenditures. From 1998 to 2005, tobacco marketing nearly doubled from $6.9 billion to $13.4 billion, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission.

A Decade of Broken Promises: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement Ten Years Later - Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Full Report (pdf, 142pp/740kB)
Executive Summary & Key Findings (pdf, 6pp/56kB)
State Rankings (pdf, 2pp/40kB)