Bill puts tobacco settlement funding at risk

A Senate bill that would siphon money from Hawaii's tobacco prevention programs to help solve state budget gaps "is not a wise thing to do," says Jean Evans, the executive director of the American Lung Association in Hawaii. The purpose of the tobacco settlement fund was "to create a healthy, smoke-free Hawaii" and programs are working, Evans said.

"Diverting these monies to the state general fund would significantly harm programs that have reduced teen smoking by 60 percent." Other states that have cut tobacco program funding, such as California and Massachusetts, have had significant increases in smoking rates and health care costs, Evans said.

Senate Bill 292 would cut the amount going into the tobacco prevention and control trust fund to 2 percent from 12.5 percent, or about $11 million. At month’s end, House-Senate conferees worked on differences in the measure.

Evans and Trisha Nakamura, policy and advocacy director with the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, say reducing smoking prevention allocations is dangerous. "It is a small amount of money in the big picture. Prevention does save money in the short and long run," Evans said.

Evans said teen smoking rates dropped to 9.7 percent from 24.5 percent from 2000 to 2007. Adult rates also dropped to 15.4 percent from 19.7 percent last year, she said.

From 2000 to 2004, efforts to reduce smoking in Hawaii resulted in the state’s having the second lowest smoking-related death rate in the nation per 100,000 population (after Utah) from 2000 to 2004, according to a federal study. Nakamura said even a 2 percent increase in the smoking rate will cost an estimated $11 million over five years in smoking-related health costs. "It will mean all the gains we've made to reduce teen and adult smoking will be eroded out."