Jump to full article: HealthDay [HealthScout], 2002-10-03
Author: Adam Marcus / HealthScoutNews Reporter
Intro: States with the worst tobacco habits and those that grow the plant spend the least on programs to reduce smoking, says a new study that shows most of the billions pried from Big Tobacco in 1998 aren't being spent as intended. . .
"As of now, from a public health perspective, the [agreement] seems to be in critical condition," says Dr. Cary Gross, a Yale University physician and lead author of the study. "When states are not investing their tobacco settlement funds in their tobacco control programs, the program funding suffers."
Previous studies have pointed out the failure of states to apply their share of the settlement to tobacco control. Gross and his colleagues showed that tobacco control programs aren't drawing much from other sources of funding either. Their findings appear in tomorrow's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine . . .
"It's sad, because it shows that the states with the greatest public health need are really doing the least to address that need," Gross adds.
The new study relies on data from 2001. However, the situation has only deteriorated since then, experts say.
Jump to full article » |