ACS CAN > New York State > Helping Smokers Quit

SUPPORT NEW YORK’S TOBACCO CONTROL PROGRAM

• New York has raised $10.5 billion in tobacco revenues over the past six years, yet less than four percent has been spent on tobacco control programs. Only about four pennies of every dollar raised by tobacco revenues goes to help people quit smoking.
• Over the past three years funding for the tobacco control program has been cut in half.  In the current fiscal year, New York will spend on tobacco control a mere two percent of tobacco revenues, and only 16 percent of the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Tobacco use takes a terrible toll on New York. In 2009, 25,400 lives were prematurely lost due to tobacco use. Tobacco costs New Yorkers an estimated $8.17 billion in health care costs, including $2.7 billion in Medicaid costs as a result of tobacco use.
• Tobacco control programs have been proven to reduce youth smoking and help current smokers to quit.  When more adequately funded, the New York tobacco control programs achieved successes in the effort to curb tobacco use, especially in preventing young people from becoming smokers. Teenage and adult tobacco use rates have fallen faster in New York than in the U.S. as a whole. In 2010, 12.6 percent of teenagers, and 15.5 percent of adults, were smokers.
• Limited funding prevents the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Program from reaching the most vulnerable populations with the highest rates of smoking – those areas with the lowest incomes. As a result, increasingly the burden of tobacco taxes falls most heavily on those least able to pay.

We'll continue to advocate for increased funding for this life-saving program in 2012. Stay tuned for how you can help!