State’s anti-smoking funds may drop next year

Tennessee spends about $1.3 million in federal funds for anti-smoking programs, well short of the $32 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

It’s barely enough to reach one-third of a state where one in three high school students smokes and nearly a quarter of all adults light up.

And because of a change in federal law, Tennessee will have to sharply increase its share by another $202,607 in 2004 or lose nearly two-thirds of its federal funding — some $810,000.

Health Commissioner Kenneth Robinson asked for the new money during his department’s budget hearing this month before Gov. Phil Bredesen, saying the state already spends a “piddling” amount on anti-smoking efforts.

Bredesen said he does not know if the request will be included in the 2004-05 budget that he will send to the Legislature in February.

“I’m sympathetic, but I haven’t tried to prioritize that relative to other things in other departments,” Bredesen said.

He noted that the state had missed an opportunity to generously fund smoking prevention programs through the payments it receives from a multistate and multimillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies.

Tennessee expects about $179 million in tobacco settlement payments this year and has collected $715 million since 1999. All of it has gone to the state’s general operating budget.

Tennessee is last in the nation, tied with four other states and the District of Columbia, for spending no money from the 1998 tobacco settlement to decrease smoking rates, according to a report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

If the budget includes additional money, it would go to anti-smoking and smoking cessation programs at the local level, said Dr. Wendy Long, the state’s deputy health officer.

The funding currently is spread over 34 projects, most aimed at keeping teens from taking up the habit.

Grants range in size from $2,000 to $57,000, with the larger amount going to Memphis.

It’s not enough money to do what other states have done to appreciably bring down smoking rates, including comprehensive school programs, counter-marketing of tobacco ads, cessation programs, a statewide toll-free “quit-smoking line” and thorough surveys on smoking rates and attitudes, said Joan Sartin, director of the state’s tobacco use prevention program.

In Mississippi, smoking among public middle-school students has fallen 48 percent and among high school students 29 percent since it began spending settlement dollars on anti-smoking programs, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Jo Edwards, who holds the Adams Chair in health care services at Middle Tennessee State University, said it gets a $9,000 grant that goes to area schools, YMCAs and Boys & Girls Clubs.

A share of the money goes to high school students, who develop dance troupes and peer education groups that travel to middle and elementary schools, she said.

“Kids listen to kids,” Edwards said. “Instead of talking about getting cancer from smoking, they talk about not being able to get a date because you have yellow teeth.”

There’s a Puff the Dragon mascot that visits elementary schools, and students have developed anti-smoking campaigns for broadcast on in-school Channel 1, she said.

“It’s been a struggle. It doesn’t go very far,” Edwards said. “Most states have done things like this with millions of dollars in their budgets.”