State defends anti-smoking efforts
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Hawai'i is among many states getting poor grades from the American Lung Association for anti-smoking efforts, but state health officials say the report is partly based on outdated information.
Hawai'i got a B for its relative high cigarette tax of $1.20 per pack, but two D's and an F on the other three criteria in the organization's 2002 report scheduled for release today.
Douglas Yee, president of the American Lung Association of Hawai'i, said the report still ranks the state above most other states. Only 16 states scored higher than Hawai'i, while 10 states got straight F's.
"The report shows that Hawai'i is going in the right direction but that we still have a long way to go," Yee said.
Recently appointed state health director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said she thinks, overall, the state "is doing a very good job on spending the tobacco settlement money."
She said that some of the grades fail to consider all of what has been done locally, although "there's always room for improvement."
Eight states more than doubled their tobacco tax in 2002, the report said, and 14 now have a per-pack tax of $1 or more. Massachusetts taxes cigarettes at $1.51 per pack, the highest in the nation.
Many states have raised taxes on cigarettes as a way of generating quick money, and the association said the move is discouraging smoking.
The state received an F for laws to protect people from second-hand smoke based solely on the 1987 state law that first set limited smoking restrictions in restaurants and in the workplace.
The poor grade was received even though the report noted that three counties — Honolulu, Maui and Kaua'i — have increased smoking restrictions and that Honolulu and Maui banned smoking in restaurants in the past year.
Julian Lipsher, of the Health Department's tobacco prevention education program, said the association looked only at the 1987 state law, which was based on the idea that smokers and non-smokers could both be accommodated in workplaces.
"It's old science, it's obsolete science, it's bad public policy," Lipsher said.
Forty-two states and the District of Columbia got an F in this category.
Hawai'i received D's on its efforts to stop children from smoking, and on spending on anti-tobacco programs.
The Health Department's Susan Jackson said the report indicates that the state spent only $6.9 million in the past year on anti-smoking programs, while the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended spending $10.7 million.
Lipsher said that doesn't reflect the money spent on chronic disease prevention and other anti-smoking financing from private grants, an estimated $2 million more in the last fiscal year.
"It's an incomplete picture," Jackson said.
In 1998, tobacco companies agreed to pay $206 billion over 25 years to 46 states to settle lawsuits. Four states later settled separately for a total of $40 billion.
Jackson said the state received a $9.6 million tobacco settlement payment this month and expects another $3.25 million later this month.
Jackson said Hawai'i is one of only a handful of states to not use the money to help balance the budget and to dedicate a percentage to continuing tobacco prevention education, rather than deciding each legislative session how much to earmark for such programs.
The association gave 32 states and the District of Columbia a grade of F for weak spending on anti-tobacco programs. Only six states earned an A.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
