Arizona failed in 3 out of 5 categories. American Lung Association Annual State of Tobacco Control This year’s report shows no improvement from the 2022 performance.
Arizona received an “F” for funding tobacco prevention programs. The ALA report said he received $17.7 million in tobacco prevention funding from the state and $1.7 million from the federal government. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that the state allocate $64 million in funding each year. So Arizona is less than a third of that her.
Arizona Taxes Tobacco Products to Raise Revenues for Tobacco Prevention Programs 9 cents more than the federal average However, e-cigarettes, which are prevalent among young people, remain untaxed, demonstrating the high profitability of the tobacco industry.
The ALA also gave the state an “F” for not banning or restricting flavored tobacco products, even though they are highly addictive and dangerous, especially for young people.
Meredith Berkman is co-founder of Parents Against Vaping, a national organization whose goal is to “educate not only the dangers of tobacco use among young people, but also the predatory nature of the tobacco industry.” is.
Berkman advocates the need for FDA-approved smoking cessation methods for youth wanting to quit e-cigarettes, and Arizona gets a ‘C’ for funding quit remedies, as numbers in the ALA report show doing.
Smoking cessation methods such as nicotine replacement therapy and nicotine patches and chewing gum are available, but they are highly addictive and easily accessible, so they are not always effective.
“If nicotine receptors were activated, even if you quit smoking, you might have been able to quit 20 years ago. [but] That activation never really goes away,” Berkman said.
Parents Against Vaping provides resources for teens who want to quit smoking. parentagainstvaping.org.
According to University of Arizona Campus Health website, since August 2020, 76% of UA students are e-cig/JUUL/vape free and 88% of UA students are tobacco free. However, Berkman assumes that these numbers are not exact.
“The National Youth Tobacco Survey has a different methodology. [COVID-19]said Berkman. “We cannot compare the numbers from the last two years of this study to those before.
UA’s Campus Health offers resources for quitting smoking and over-the-counter and prescription smoking cessation assistance.view their page at health.arizona.edu.
according to Report from Pima County: “School officials across the county report that the use of e-cigarettes and vape products is disrupting school hours and student education.” launched a campaign called
Pima County Offers Resources for Quitting Smoking webcms.pima.gov.
According to the ALA report, Arizona also gets an “F” at the tobacco tax level. The tobacco industry spends approximately $123.7 million annually on marketing tobacco products, $400 million a year in Arizona 1 person.
The only area where Arizona got an “A” was banning smoking in the workplace.
The ALA is asking Arizona’s recently elected officials to take their next actions in the coming year.
- Establishes a statewide tobacco retailer licensing system.
- Opposes any form of statewide preemption on the sale or use of tobacco products.and
- Increase state funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
and Press conference Speaking at the Arizona State Capitol in January, recently elected Gov. Katie Hobbs said:
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