September 9, 1999 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Non-profit groups may not benefit as much from a $206-billion deal between states
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4-H Defends Anti-Smoking Program Financed by Tobacco Company
and companies that sell tobacco as once thought, if a new report detailing state lawmakers’ plans to spend the money holds true.
The report, released in August by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Heart Association, says that many states plan to spend little, if any, of the money on programs to prevent tobacco use — even though the state attorneys general who negotiated the deal intended the money to be used, at least in part, to pay for anti-smoking programs and related health-care projects.
The settlement, signed last year by five tobacco companies, calls for the companies to pay out the $206-billion over the next 25 years to the 46 states that had sued the industry seeking reimbursement for treatment of smoking-related illnesses. At least some of the money was expected to go to anti-smoking, health, and youth-related non-profit organizations.
But according to the new report, many states have diverted the money away from health care altogether — using it to pay for such items as tax cuts, college scholarships, water projects, and prison construction.
The report measures a state’s spending plans for anti-smoking programs against the spending levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national health center released a report last month that tallies the annual cost for each state to run what the center would consider to be an effective program to prevent and reduce tobacco use. The center’s report says that the average-sized state should spend from $31-million to $83-million each year on tobacco-control programs.
The report from the heart association and the anti-smoking group found only six states that plan to spend at least one-third of the minimum amount recommended by the C.D.C. Six states, the report says, will not use any of the settlement money for tobacco programs.
Copies of the report, “Show Us the Money: An Update on the States’ Allocation of the Tobacco Settlement Dollars,” are available on the Web site of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/html/1998_tobacco_settlement.html.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control, “Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, August 1999,” is available free from the centers’ Office on Smoking and Health at (770) 488-5705, ext. 2. Links to the document can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/bestprac.htm.
