For the fourth year in a row, Missouri has scored an "F" on the American Lung Association's annual State of Tobacco Control report in all four categories: tobacco prevention control and spending, smokefree air, cigarette tax, and cessation (helping tobacco users quit).
According the report, one reason for the low grade is that Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the country (17 cents per pack).
Michelle Bernth, senior vice president of communications at the American Lung Association of Missouri, explains that the Missouri consitution makes it harder than most states to raise the cigarette tax. The Hancock amendment limits the amount the legislature can increase taxes, so raising the cigarette tax would have to go to a public vote.
"People see raising the cigarette tax as a tax increase or sin tax, but what most poeple don't see is the economic benefit of making it harder for people to smoke," says Bernth. Smoking costs Missouri about $4.7 billiion a year, according to the report, and the Centers for Disease Control recommends that the state spends a minimum of $73 million a year on tobacco control and prevention. Currently, Missouri spends $58,000 as a state and gets $5.5 million in federal funding, so, as a whole, the state is spending about 7 percent of the minimum recommended amount, Bernth adds.
Although there have been some recent local smoking bans, the lack of a statewide smoking ban also contriubtes to the low rating.
"We're really lagging at the end of the line nationally when it comes to protecting people from secondhand smoke," explains Bernth. "We've seen some progress locally, but we're at a tipping point now when it's time to create a level playing field and make the laws the same for everyone. Everyone deserves to be protected."
Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia also scored an "F" in all categories; however, 43 other states also scored an "F" in the tobacco prevention control and spending category.
To learn more and get involved in improving the state's tobacco control grade, go to lungaction.org.
