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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 13, 2003

Hawai'i slips in national anti-tobacco ranking

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

A national coalition ranks Hawai'i sixth among the states for spending on programs to prevent smoking, but that rating slipped one position from the last report after the state trimmed $1.4 million from this year's budget, according to a report released yesterday.

Julian Lipsher of the state Health Department's tobacco prevention and control program said Hawai'i remains a leader among states in anti-smoking education and has seen decreases in the number of adult smokers and smoking-related deaths.

But Lipsher and others who work in tobacco education worry that the economy and competition for limited resources may further endanger the money being spent on prevention and that pressure will increase at the state Legislature to spend the money elsewhere.

State officials this year cut the $10.3 million originally allocated to anti-smoking programs to $8.9 million.

One of the recipients is an organization called REAL, run by teens to spread a youth-oriented anti-smoking messages. One of its favorite handouts reads: "Tobacco companies make a product that kills so they need to addict new customers to replace the ones that die every day. Stop big tobacco's attack on our generation. Don't buy the lies." Its Web site is www.therealmessage.net.

The group is coordinated through the Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i-Manoa and financed by the state Department of Health and Hawaii Community Foundation with tobacco settlement money.

REAL project director Mary Jane Ahrendes said the program has enough money to continue until the end of March. She said the program received $469,000 for 2002, $341,000 for 2003 and another $70,000 of tobacco settlement money to carry them to March. "Our funding is in jeopardy," she said.

Bryan Dalby, 18, of McCully, credits REAL for helping him steer clear of smoking. Dalby said he smoked from the time he was 12 until he was 16. "I got hooked. I just did it to be around the cool people," he said.

Now Dalby tells other teens and young adults about marketing techniques designed to hook young smokers. "They try to promote smoking as looking cool, looking sexy," he said.

He said handing out fliers and talking to teens works. "I love spreading the message," he said.

Ahrendes said the group has about 1,400 members statewide with a leadership board that meets monthly. "Everything was designed by the teens," she said. And the slogans reflect the younger edge: "Teens kicking big tobacco's ash" and "We're untouchable."

She said the group got all stores on Moloka'i for three years in a row to agree not to sell tobacco products between 8 a.m and 4 p.m.

Deborah Zysman, director of Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai'i, said the state is still doing better than most but that support nationwide is eroding. The report came from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made recommendations for what each state should spend on tobacco prevention. According to the report only four states — Arkansas, Delaware, Maine and Mississippi — are spending enough to meet the CDC's minimum level.

Hawai'i spends 82.6 percent of that minimum recommendation.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.