By Sarah Green
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Dec. 6
Health advocates say Kansas should spend more on its anti-smoking campaign, especially so since the state stands to receive an extra $15.5 million next year from the national settlement with the big tobacco companies.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national coalition that aims to protect children from exposure and addiction to tobacco, released information Wednesday ranking Kansas 43rd in the nation for the amount it spends on tobacco prevention. Last year Kansas ranked 41st among the states.
The Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition held a videoconference Tuesday to discuss their goals for the upcoming legislative session. And making sure that anticipated extra money is spent on tobacco prevention and cessation programs emerged as the group”s top priority. Also, members said they will work to assure the extra dollars make their way to the local level where they can be put to good use.
“We want to inform the people out in the regions of this opportunity,” said Dr. Jon Hauxwell, the coalition”s president. “The timing is important.”
The so-called Master Settlement Agreement, or MSA, of November 1998 was reached by states and the tobacco industry to settle the lawsuit filed by states seeking reimbursement for the costs of treating sick smokers. As its portion of the settlement payments, Kansas has since received about $400 million. Kansas has received approximately $50 million in settlement payments each of the past two years. The additional $15.5 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would come from an increase in base payments from the tobacco companies to the states, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that Kansas spend between $18.1 and $44 million each year on comprehensive state tobacco prevention and control programs, said Paula Marmet, director of the Office of Health Promotion in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment”s Division of Health.
But the state has never followed that recommendation. Instead, the majority of the settlement money has gone to the Children”s Initiative Fund, which pays for a variety of child welfare programs in the Juvenile Justice Authority; Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and the Department of Education.
The legislature has allocated about $1 million each year from the
Children”s Initiative Fund
for local tobacco control programs. But if additional funds are coming to Kansas,
the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition wants it used for community-based comprehensive tobacco control programs.
“There”s great potential for local health agencies,” to use the money effectively, Marmet said.
During the Tuesday videoconference, the group also briefly discussed other topics that could come up during the legislative session related to tobacco use, such as outlawing smoking on school campuses; eliminating smoking on hospital campuses; and a state-wide clean indoor air act.
Sarah Green is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. She can be reached at
sgreen@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 118.