January 30th, the American Lung Association in Arizona will release the results of the 17th annual “State of Tobacco Control” report, which tracks progress on key tobacco control policies at the federal and state level, assigning grades based on whether laws are protecting citizens from tobacco-caused death and disease. This year’s report finds that the federal government is failing to protect kids from e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. The report also found no state is funding its tobacco prevention efforts at levels recommended by the CDC, despite billions in revenue from tobacco taxes and ongoing payments from the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in November 2018. Health officials say tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing 480,000 people each year. Effective strategies to prevent and reduce tobacco use are identified in the annual “State of Tobacco Control” report, which serves as a road map to save lives, and grades states and the federal government to reduce and prevent tobacco use. The report will be released to the public on January 30th at 9 am and will be available at Lung.org/sotc.
