Stronger action needed against tobacco

Despite progress in some areas, government oversight of smoking is slipping. FDA regulation of tobacco, and more funding of prevention programs, is necessary to ensure that the use of cigarettes is extinguished.

Editorial. Feb. 4, 2008.

As 2008 gets started, we can see progress in snuffing out tobacco use. A statewide ban on indoor smoking went into effect in Illinois. In Colorado, the statewide indoor smoking ban was extended to the last holdouts, casinos. Now, 14 states have smoking bans that cover all indoor public places, while another six have very limited exceptions. More bans, at the state and local level, are on the way.

But that's only part of the story. While states are rightly doing more to limit where people can smoke, they are backsliding in funding programs that would reduce how many people are smoking.

Only three states -- Colorado, Delaware and Maine -- are funding tobacco prevention programs at levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a December 2007 report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart Assn., the American Lung Assn. and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. In January, the American Lung Assn. issued its own report that gave 18 states and the federal government failing grades for their anti-smoking efforts, while 32 states received F's for their funding of tobacco control and prevention.

The result is that after steady declines from 1997 to 2004, the smoking rate is stuck in neutral. About 20.8% of U.S. adults smoked in 2006, according to the CDC, virtually the same level as in 2004.