Utah Gets Mixed Grades on Tobacco-Control Programs

“Despite a historic opportunity in the California Legislature past year, state lawmakers failed yet again to enact tobacco control policies that would save lives and reduce the $18 billion in annual health care costs due to smoking”, said a statement accompanying the 14th annual American Lung Association State of Tobacco Control 2016 report. Grades are awarded in three categories: smoke-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing, and reducing sales of tobacco products.

Mr Fraser said: “Smoking can stunt growth and can cause a number of respiratory related health problems for those under the age of 18 and I would encourage the authorities to up their game when educating these facts to teenagers”.

Overall, Woodland received a grade of C, West Sacramento and the county earned D’s, and Winters earned an overall grade of F.

Ohio’s American Lung Association report card was released on Wednesday, and the grades were far from spectacular.

The state has increased its cigarette tax by 35 cents a pack, but the association says the tax must go higher to be an effective disincentive.

Flavored tobacco has become a big issue in the anti-smoking war, with a push across the country to try to curb youth smoking in particular by banning the flavored products many say appeal to them. “Yet we have still been able to drive smoking rates down, so it’s money well spent”.

Once a national leader in tobacco control efforts, California continues to fall behind other states in protecting its residents from tobacco, the American Lung Association and its California affiliate said today.

Jenny Rabas, University Health Services spokesperson, said the best way to reduce tobacco use is to change policy.

“The tobacco industry uses flavored tobacco products to target our youth, and make their products easier to use and more palatable”, the association said in its report.

It put forward evidence from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected in 2014 suggesting that smoking on-screen could result in the recruiting of more than six million young smokers in the US, two million of which would die from “tobacco-induced diseases”. “This will save lives and prevent our children from becoming the next generation hooked on tobacco”.

California and Missouri are the only states in the nation that have not raised tobacco taxes since 1999. Other federal grades include a “C” for Federal Cessation Coverage, and “F” for Tobacco Taxes and a “B” for its Mass Media Campaigns, a new grading area in this year’s report.

The report also observed that many films produced outside of the United States also contain smoking scenes.