remains high.
4
Cerain populations are also disproporionately exposed
to secondhand smoke, including: children ages 3-11, Black Americans,
persons living in povery and people with a high school education or
less.
5
Pars of the country, especially many Southern and Appalachian
states remain unprotected from secondhand smoke in public places and
workplaces as well.
■
State Progress to Reduce Tobacco Use: The country has made
substantial progress on several of the state public policies measured in
“State of Tobacco Control” over the past 20 years. These include:
● Progressing from 2 to 28 smokefree states;
● Increasing the average state cigarete tax from $0.62 in January 2003 to
$1.91 in January 2022; and
● Improving state Medicaid program coverage of quit smoking treatments
since “State of Tobacco Control” first began tracking these data in 2008.
In 2021, the tobacco industry brought back to the forefront an old roadblock
it has used for more than 30 years: preemption, or lobbying state legislatures
to pass laws that prevent local communities from passing tobacco control
policies stronger than state law. This severely hampers the ability of local
communities to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Unforunately, the tobacco
industry was successful in instituting new preemptive state laws on sales of
tobacco products in Florida and Montana in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on tobacco use is still being assessed.
According to a Federal Trade Commission repor in 2020, cigarete sales
increased for the first time in 20 years.
6
It is unclear if this signals higher adul
smoking rates, or existing smokers smoking more cigaretes. In addition, the
rate of youth vaping in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2021
National Youth Tobacco Survey varied significantly if a student took the survey
at home or in a school building.
7
Therefore, it is unclear if the level of youth
vaping seen in 2021 will be a one-year blip or a durable trend.
During 2020, many casinos both tribal and non-tribal re-opened smokefree
afer being closed initially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unforunately,
2021 saw some backsliding in this area with smoking returning to casinos in
New Jersey and Pennsylvania afer emergency orders issued by governors
preventing them from allowing smoking expired. Activity on tobacco tax
increases ended up being much slower than expected in 2021 as well, due to
many state budgets being more robust than expected.
In 2022, the country needs to redouble its efors to pass the proven
policies called for in “State of Tobacco Control.” This will require an ongoing
parnership at the federal, state and local levels to restar declines in adul and
youth tobacco use rates and reduce the 480,000 lives lost to tobacco each
year. Our elected oficials must take stronger actions to put the country on a
path to finally end tobacco use over the nex 20 years.
More About “State of
Tobacco Control”
“State of Tobacco Control” 2022
is focused on proven policies that
federal and state governments
can enact to prevent and reduce
tobacco use. These include:
●
Tobacco prevention and quit
smoking funding, programs and
robust insurance coverage;
●
Comprehensive smokefree laws
that eliminate smoking in all
public places and workplaces;
●
Increased tobacco taxes;
●
Eliminating the sale of all
flavored tobacco products;
●
Full implementation of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration’s
(FDA) Family Smoking
Prevention and Tobacco Control
Act; and
●
Hard hiting federal media
campaigns to encourage
smokers to quit and prevent
young people from staring to
use tobacco.
The repor assigns grades based
on laws and regulations designed
to prevent and reduce tobacco
use in efect as of January 2022.
The federal government, all
50 state governments and the
District of Columbia are graded
to determine if their laws and
policies are adequately protecting
citizens from the enormous toll
tobacco use takes on lives, healh
and the economy.
1. Park-Lee E, Ren C, Sawdey MD, et al. Notes from the Field: E-Cigarete Use Among Middle and High
School Students — National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021. MMWR Morb Moral Wkly Rep
2021;70:1387–1389. DOI: htp://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7039a4.
2. CDC. National Healh Interview Survey. Various years.
3. Cornelius ME, Wang TW, Jamal A, Loretan CG, Nef LJ. Tobacco Product Use Among Aduls — United States,
2019. MMWR Morb Moral Wkly Rep 2020;69:1736–1742.
4. Ibid.
American Lung Association “State of Tobacco Control” 20223 Lung.org
