Fitzsimon File

Progress in the battle to reduce smoking in North Carolina is steady, but slow and continues to be hampered by the allegiance of many North Carolina policymakers to the tobacco industry.

The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids latest report finds that North Carolina spends just over a third of the amount of money on tobacco prevention recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, ranking 23^rd in the country. The state spends $15 million a year on anti-smoking programs.

The tobacco industry spends $615 million a year in North Carolina on advertising tobacco products, outspending the anti-smoking efforts 41 to 1. Health costs related to smoking in North Carolina are $2.26 billion a year.

The report is called "A Broken Promise to Our Children; The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement Seven Years Later." Nationally, funding for anti-smoking programs is down from three years ago even though revenue from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes has increased. Many states continue to use the tobacco settlement money to fund other programs or simply send it to the state’s general fund.

North Carolina allocates 25 percent of its $185 million annual settlement payment to the Health and Wellness Trust Fund that spends a portion of its money on anti-smoking efforts.

Fifty percent of the settlement goes to the Golden Leaf Foundation, which makes grants to help communities affected by the decline of the tobacco industry. Increasingly, the Foundation is making grants to businesses as part of the Commerce Department’s industrial recruitment strategy.

Twenty-five percent of the money had been going to the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission, set up to help tobacco growers and allotment holders.

Money has been diverted from the fund recent in recent years, but in October the Tobacco Trust Fund made $3 million in grants including $140,000 to the N.C. Tobacco Foundation and Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina for communication efforts.

Graham Boyd, the group’s executive vice-president, opposed the increase in the state cigarette passed last session. That means the state’s tobacco settlement money is going to groups that oppose state efforts to reduce smoking.

The successes in anti-smoking efforts are coming at the local levels, with the number of school systems passing tobacco free policies continuing to increase. Six hospitals in Western North Carolina recently enacted policies making their campuses completely tobacco free.

Lawmakers did raise the cigarette tax last session over the objections of the Tobacco Growers Association and the tobacco industry. The tax will increase to 35 cents a pack in July of 2006. That is still far below the national average of 91 cents. Efforts to ban smoking in restaurants failed in the House.

One in four high school students in North Carolina still smokes and more than 17,000 kids become daily smokers every year. More than 200,000 kids under 18 will die prematurely from the effects of smoking.

Why does progress have to be so slow? There are things that would help immediately. Spend more money on anti-smoking efforts, at least the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Stop funding groups that oppose those efforts.

Ban smoking in schools statewide, instead of relying on advocates to do it one school system at a time. Raise the tobacco tax enough to significantly reduce teen smoking.

Advocates deserve credit for the progress the state has made. But we can do better and save more lives sooner if more of our political leaders can muster the courage to join the effort.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 at 11:38 am and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.