Tobacco.org

Funding Cuts Hurt Antismoking Programs ($$) 

The percentage of high-school students who smoked at least one day within the past month remained largely unchanged from 2003 to 2007, in the range of 20% to 23% of students surveyed, following sharp declines in the previous half-decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.

The stalled progress comes as states have drastically cut funding for tobacco-prevention and -cessation programs since 2002, said Terry Pechacek, associate director for science at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. On average, state funding for tobacco-prevention and -cessation programs fell by 28% between 2002 and 2005, according to the American Legacy Foundation, a national organization created in 1999 out of a master tobacco-settlement agreement between the tobacco industry and 51 states and territories to develop antitobacco programs.

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