No More Tobacco

Smoke-Free Workplace Laws, and Rising Cigarette Taxes…WashingtonPost.comreported on January 10 that anti-tobacco campaigns registered some significant gains in 2007, with more states banning smoking in public places. But there’s still too little federal and state funding for smoking-prevention and cessation programs, and many states haven’t increased their cigarette taxes. That’s the conclusion of the American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2007report card, released Thursday. “Tobacco remains the number one preventable cause of death in America,” Bernadette Toomey, the lung association’s president and CEO, said during a Tuesday teleconference. “Diseases related to tobacco kill more than 438,000 Americans each year. If effective policies were implemented, this dreadful toll would be greatly reduced.” Tobacco control policies work, Toomey added. “But what we need is the political will on the part of our leaders to implement these proven policies,” she said. On the federal level, Toomey called on Congress to pass the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. For the full story: click here.