Do you want the good news first? Hint: there’s not a lot of it.
The American Lung Association has just released its 22nd annual “State of Tobacco Control,”grading states across the nation, including Idaho. And the Gem State gets a B for “Coverage and Access to Services to Quit Tobacco.”
But it goes downhill from there. Idaho gets a C for “Strength of Smokefree Workplace Laws,” and gets three F’s for “Funding for State Tobacco Prevention Programs,” “Level of State Tobacco Taxes,” and “Ending the Sale of All Favored Tobacco Products.”
“This is a report that grades states and the federal government on evidence-based policies,” said Carrie Nyssen, Senior Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association in Idaho.
Nyssen visits with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about the report card and some new troubling news – Idaho’s high school tobacco-use rate, and the jaw-dropping Idaho healthcare costs due to smoking.
“The state receives over $71 million from MSA payments and from taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products. Yet they invest $3.8 million in prevention programs.”Carrie Nyssen
Read the transcript below:
GEORGE PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning, I'm George Prentice. A report card is out this morning. More specifically, it is the American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control. And the grades are not good at all for Idaho. We will get into that this morning. But first, let's bring in our guest. Carrie Nyssen is here. She is the senior director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Idaho. Carrie good morning.
CARRIE NYSSEN: Good morning. George, it's so great to be with you here this morning. Thanks for the invitation.
PRENTICE: Let's get right to this. Idaho gets failing grades. I think most of us would be in deep trouble if we had a report card like this. Can you break down the different categories and the grades for Idaho?
NYSSEN: Absolutely. This is a report that grades states and the federal government on evidence-based policies. So when it comes to states, there are five different grades that we award. There's one for tobacco prevention and control funding. And Idaho scores an F there for smoke free air. Idaho gets a C for tobacco taxes. Idaho gets a second F for access to quit programs. The state gets a B, so we can be very proud of that grade. And the last category is flavored tobacco products. And again Idaho gets an F in that category.
PRENTICE: And I want to get into that flavored tobacco in just a moment when especially when we talk about our youth. But when I look at some of the details on this report card. It is rather jaw dropping. Do I have this right? The health care costs due to smoking. What is this number?
NYSSEN: It can be the cost from premature deaths from tobacco use. It can be health care costs. It can be missed working days. You know, when people are addicted to nicotine and they have to have those breaks and go outside. It includes those costs as well. Hospitalizations, er visits and just regular health care costs.
PRENTICE: Well, I'll leave it to you then. Tell us what that dollar amount is because it is stunning.
NYSSEN: It's over a half-billion. It's $508,053,436 for the state of Idaho.
PRENTICE: Let's talk about students and high school students in particular. I see the high school smoking rate is just under 4%. But then in the report card, it says the high school tobacco use rate is nearly 19%. What's going on there?
NYSSEN: That's really one of the most disturbing, I think, data points we have in this report for Idaho. As many folks know, there's these new tobacco products out called vapor devices like smoking devices. And those products are so popular amongst our youth. It's just really an epidemic in our nation. And the scary thing about these products is sometimes the youth don't even know there's nicotine in these products. And they don't understand that any time they take anything into their lungs that's not clean, fresh, healthy air, there's lung damage that's occurring. And the other thing that we see in this tobacco use category could be other tobacco products. Tobacco chewing is popular in many of our states. And so that's another thing that really ups the percentage of youth using tobacco products in Idaho.
PRENTICE: And this is where we get into those flavored products too. Right. They are targeting youth.
NYSSEN: It's just… it's just really egregious. Some of the tactics that some of these companies are using when it comes to marketing these products, we see many candy flavored products on the market. You know, bubblegum flavored pina colada, just all sorts of products that are so obviously meant to target our young people. And these products taste good. I remember my dad was a cigarette smoker and you know, the smoke just taste it. It smelled horrible. You just didn't want to be around it. Well, these products with all of these delightful sweet flavors actually taste good. And they even might smell good. So it's really attractive to youth. And it's a great, um, sadly, it's a great strategy for the tobacco industry used to hook another generation of kids on nicotine.
PRENTICE: What do you know about efforts or lack thereof, specifically at, uh, our capital, uh, our legislature is in session as we speak. Do you know of anything in the pipeline? Where are we with advocacy?
NYSSEN: Yeah, it's been a while since we have been able to make good strides when it comes to creating good policy to protect youth and all Idahoans from tobacco use. I think we can look at the report card and see a couple of different things that the state legislature could take a look at. And I think one of the most important is tobacco prevention funding. That's one of the categories where we have an F grade. And I think it's important to realize that the state takes in the state receives over $71 million from MSA payments and from taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products. Yet they invest just 3.8 million in prevention programs, programs that can work to help keep our youth from ever starting tobacco products, and maybe from actually quitting if they have started.
PRENTICE: It's a must-read report and we will put a link to it on our website for now. Carrie Nyssen is the senior director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Idaho. Carrie Nyssen, thanks for giving us some time this morning.
NYSSEN: Thank you, George.
Find reporter George Prentice@georgepren
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