US: Most States Not Spending Much on Tobacco Prevention Programs; States Report

Source from:  Top News  12/10/2012

An association of public health organizations released a report `Broken Promises to Our Children: The 1988 State Tobacco Settlement 14 Years Later" on Thursday that stated that out of the whole nation Virginia ranked 31st in funding anti-smoking programs. The report stated that this year Virginia will be collecting a revenue of $336 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and taxes. However, it will only be spending 2.5 percent of the revenue on tobacco prevention programs.

The report further elaborated that a total of $8.4 million is being spent by Virginia on tobacco prevention programs annually, this amount being the current expenditure and also of the past two years. However, this amount has dropped from 2008 by 42 percent when $14.5 million was spent on such programs. Meanwhile the estimated cost that tobacco companies spend on marketing their products in one year in the state is $296.9 million, the repost stated.
 
Looking at the nation as a whole, the report found that most states failed adequate funding of tobacco cessation and prevention programs. And the amount that is expected to collect this year from tobacco collection and taxes amounts to $25.7 billion out of which only 2 percent will be spent on tobacco prevention programs. Enditem