New Hampshire Continues to Fail to Spend Tobacco Money

Tobacco Free NH Coalition /Page 1 of 2

For Immediate Release –

April 13, 2009 (12pm)

NEW HAMPSHIRE CONTINUES TO FAIL TO SPEND TOBACCO MONEY

ON PREVENTING KIDS FROM SMOKING

The Presidents/CEOs of four major voluntary health organizations released a report today showing that New Hampshire and the other New England statesare not keeping their promiseto use a significant portion of funds from the 1998 state tobacco settlement to reduce tobacco’s toll on the states’ children, families and communities. They have also called on the states to live up to their promises to use their tobacco settlement money on tobacco control, and signed a “Resolution” that will be sent to all New England governors, Senate presidents, and House speakers.

The report, titled,“SHORT CHANGED: BROKEN PROMISES ON TOBACCO CONTROL PLACE MILLIONS OF KIDS ACROSS NEW ENGLAND AT RISK FOR ADDICTION AND EARLY DEATH,”is being released two days before New Hampshire receives its next round of multi-million dollar payments from the settlement, currently projected at $48 million. The report was compiled by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Key findings of the report include:

This year, New Hampshire will collect over $205 million in revenue from the tobacco settlement and

tobacco taxes, but will spend none of it on tobacco prevention programs.

Tobacco use costs New Hampshire $564 million a year in health care costs related to tobacco-caused

illnesses.

The annual state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures is $628 per

New Hampshire resident.

“There is no greater return on investment than from investing in tobacco use prevention. With so much of our health care costs due to smoking related diseases, there are serious consequences to doing nothing to prevent smoking and to not helping the majority of smokers who want to quit,” said Susan Martore-Baker, Chair for the American Lung Association of New Hampshire.

Tobacco remains the nation’s leading cause of preventable death, killing more than 1,700 annually in New Hampshire alone. Today in New Hampshire, more than 19.4% of adults and 19% of high school students are smokers and 1 in 5 women of childbearing age smoke, leading to poor birth outcomes. In addition, more than 1,800 kids become daily smokers each year. In fact, 31,000 kids alive today in New Hampshire will ultimately die prematurely from the effects of smoking.

"I am an ex-smoker because I had help when I quit smoking. I had help quitting because I was lucky enough to have good insurance. What about the good citizens of New Hampshire who are not as fortunate? Don’t they deserve the same opportunities?” - B.J. Allgaier, volunteer for the American Cancer Society.

There is more evidence now than ever that tobacco prevention and cessation programs work, especially when part of a comprehensive effort to reduce tobacco use that also includes higher tobacco taxes and smoke-free workplace laws.

"Comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs have been proven to be effective in reducing smoking rates,especially when coupled with tobacco tax increases and smoke-freepolicies" - Dr Jon Wahrenberger,Advocacy Chair for the American Heart Association in NH.

On November 23, 1998, 46 states, including all of the New England states, settled their lawsuits against the nation’s major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related health care costs. These settlements require the tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years. While the multi-state settlement did not dictate how states should spend the money, many state attorneys general and governors pledged that they would use the tobacco companies’ own money to protect kids from tobacco and help those already addicted to quit.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives is to be commended for proposing to commit funds to tobacco control during the next biennium. It is the hope of the organizations named in this report that the New Hampshire Senate will include a substantial amount of funding in the budget for tobacco control and also take an additional step forward by increasing the cigarette tax by $1 and dedicating a portion of it to tobacco programming.

ORGANIZATION MEDIA CONTACTS:

American Cancer Society: Peter Davies,603.471.4110,

American Heart Association:Ellen McCooey,603.518.1554,

American Lung Association: Geoff Simons, 603.410.5107,

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Kevin O’Flaherty, 202.296.5469,