Utah anti-tobacco funding up to snuff?

Going by how much the state spends, Utah ranks 24th nationwide — six places lower than last year — in funding programs to protect kids from tobacco, a coalition of public health organizations reported recently.

Utah's expenditure of $7.3 million a year on anti-tobacco education campaigns is 48 percent of the minimum amount of ($15.2 million) the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the state spend each year.

The amount is an eighth of the $57 million that tobacco companies spend in Utah promoting tobacco products, and amounts to "a broken promise to our children," said the coalition report. Spending tallies were gathered by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and American Lung Association.

The coalition also reports that Utah this year will collect $94.8 million from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 7.7 percent of it on tobacco prevention.

"Utah has made a modest investment in protecting kids from tobacco, but continues to spend less than half the minimum amount recommended by the CDC," said William V. Corr, executive director Executive Director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "It is critical that Utah raise the state cigarette tax and increase funding for tobacco prevention because the tobacco companies are spending huge sums to market their deadly and addictive products, often in ways that appeal to kids."

According to the report, states this year have increased total funding for tobacco prevention programs by 20 percent or a total of $717 million. But most states still fail to fund tobacco prevention programs at minimum levels recommended by the CDC, and altogether, the states are providing less than half of what the CDC recommends.

Three states — Maine, Delaware and Colorado — currently fund tobacco prevention programs at CDC minimum levels.

Although the report warns that prevention expenditures are an indication of how well efforts are going to keep youths youth from smoking, Utahns' Utahns interest in smoking is at its lowest point ever — 9.5 percent — according to a study released in September by the state Department of Health. Overall, smoking among Utahns has declined by 38 percent in eight years. Health department statistics show that almost 170,000 adults and 20,000 youths smoke youth smoking cigarettes while 24,000 children are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes.