標題：Tobacco Policies ‘Abysmal’ in U.S. States, Lung Group Says
取自：Bloomberg Business
大意：2011年美國政府的菸害防制政策，很在很深奧「Abysmal」，看不出來方向？不知道他們在幹嗎？很「瞎」的菸害防制施政作為。
菸害防制作為，依據WHO之mpower建議，一個全面的菸害防治措施，應該有六大面向
Monitor:監測菸害之吸菸行為、二手煙暴露、菸品消費等基礎資料
Protect：落實執行菸害防制法案，確保環境沒有二手菸危害
Offer:提供戒菸服務，拯救吸菸者推離菸癮束縛，戒煙藥物廠商也會很高興
Warning:警告一支小小菸品，危害甚大，在菸盒上貼上警圖，打電視廣告，改變民眾對於菸品危害的認知，吸菸真的對健康危害很大。
Enforce：禁止菸商廣告、促銷與贊助行為，保菸品包裝成精品，讓很多女性、年輕人及青少年，受不兩精品的誘惑，發稱購菸及吸菸的衝動。
Raise:提高菸品稅捐，使菸品變貴，利用價格彈性機制，壓制青少年及吸菸者購買菸品，最為有效之措施。
美國肺病學會（the American Lung Association）很不客氣的批評：
美國的過去一年，菸害防制預算減少11％，只有兩個州提高菸品稅捐，號稱2009年通過家庭菸害防制法治法案，但是2011年在政府的施政作為上，卻是很失敗的一年（我說的）學會用，很深奧「Abysmal」之雙關語來諷刺，美國各州去年的成績，都是不及格者（F等級）居多。
評鑑項目
1. 菸害防制計畫與補助經費情形
2.無菸環境之狀況（二手菸防制成果）
3.調漲菸品稅捐之情形
4.戒菸服務涵蓋
美國報告請洽學會網站之內容：
報告重點：學會歷年來會探討美國聯邦與州政府之重要菸害防制政策指標（Key tobacco control policies at the state and federal levels）衡量各級政府在菸害防制法規之成效，給予評分及等級，好像學生考試成績，ABCD，當掉叫F等級，2012年是第10年的評鑑報告。
1. 各州對於青少年菸害防制工作，較以前，已有不用心之現象：
States are doing less to keep kids from smoking;
2. 菸商 利用州政府疏於作為，極力反攻政府菸害防制之策略
The tobacco industry is taking advantage of states’ inaction by fighting back; and
3. 聯邦政府才時繼續在進步
The federal government continues to make important progress.
去年是菸商欣欣向榮的一年，菸商的業績年年上漲，除了全球金融風暴那一年差一些，歷年都有大幅成長，新興市場在中國等新興市場，那是最令人擔心的事情。
今年的FCTC世界無菸日，是對抗菸商之對於菸害防制干擾措施，唉！
只要菸品是合法商品，在自由市場之下，政府之法規限制成效有限，菸商利益富可敵國，民眾對於菸害防制觀念沒有持續提升，政府作為沒有良好評估與持續施壓，菸害防制的問題在未來50年，仍然很年獲得有效解決！
By Molly Peterson
(Updates with teen smoking rate in 11th paragraph.)
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Anti-tobacco efforts by
U.S. states were “abysmal” last year as their collective spending on
anti- smoking programs declined 11 percent and only two raised cigarette
taxes, the American Lung Association said.
While more than half the states already ban the
use of cigarettes in restaurants, bars and workplaces, no additional
states passed comprehensive anti-smoking laws last year, the
Washington-based health advocacy group said today in a report.
Forty-three states and the District of Columbia
earned grades of “F” for funding smoking-prevention programs at less
than half the levels the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
urged in a 2007 report, the lung group said. Smoking costs the U.S.
economy almost $193 billion a year in medical expenses and lost
productivity, said Charles Connor, the association’s president and chief
executive officer.
“At a time when our country is trying to get a
handle on health-care spending, this is an enormous expense that could
be avoided by investing in effective tobacco-prevention and cessation
programs and policies,” Connor said yesterday on a conference call.
More than 20 percent of adults in the U.S., or 46
million people, smoke cigarettes, according to the Atlanta-based CDC.
Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing
about 443,000 people a year.
Nationwide, state investments in tobacco control
dropped 11 percent to $477 million in 2011 from $534 million in 2010,
according to the report. Washington, Iowa and Wisconsin were among
states that reduced spending.
Alaska Spending
Alaska was the only state that funded tobacco
programs at levels suggested by the CDC, allocating $10.8 million for
tobacco control in fiscal 2012, according to the lung association’s
report. In 2007, the CDC recommended anti-tobacco funding levels for
each state.
Vermont and Connecticut were the only states that
raised tobacco taxes last year, while eight states rejected proposed
increases. New Hampshire reduced its cigarette tax 10 cents per pack,
the survey found.
While 26 states and the District of Columbia
enacted laws in the past decade that ban smoking in public places such
as restaurants, 2011 was the first year since 2001 when no state passed a
comprehensive anti-smoking law, the report said.
“What we saw last year was virtually no progress”
by states, said Danny McGoldrick, vice president for research at the
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington. “That leads us to fear
what’s going to happen in the future in terms of our youth smoking rates
and adult smoking rates.”
Teen Smoking Rate
Teen smoking dropped last year to the lowest
level since 1975, researchers at the University of Michigan said Dec. 14
in a survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. About 11.7
percent of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders said they had smoked in the
previous 30 days, compared with 12.8 percent in 2010.
The decline signaled that state tobacco-prevention policies enacted before 2011 were working, McGoldrick said.
“You’re not saving money by cutting these
programs,” he said. “It’s like a person who says, ‘My medicine was
working so I stopped taking it.’ If it works, we need to keep doing it,
and we know it works.”
None of the states earned “A” grades in all four
policy areas covered in the report: cigarette taxes, smoking bans,
tobacco-prevention spending and cessation coverage. Delaware, Hawaii,
Maine and Oklahoma were the only states that received passing grades in
all four areas.
Failing Grades
Six states -- Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri,
South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia -- scored grades of “F” in
all four areas, according to the report.
Most states’ anti-smoking scores lagged behind
those of the federal government, which didn’t receive any failing grades
in four categories and earned an “A” for the Food and Drug
Administration’s implementation of a 2009 law that restricts tobacco
marketing.
The U.S. earned a “C” in smoking-cessation
programs, for partially covering the programs for beneficiaries of
Medicaid, the health program for the poor, and other federal benefits
programs.
“The federal government has made real progress in
helping many Americans end their deadly addiction to tobacco, but state
policy makers must step up and close the gap,” Thomas Carr, the lung
association’s director of national policy and the report’s lead author,
said on the conference call.
The 2009 tobacco law bars companies led by Altria
Group Inc., Reynolds American Inc. and Lorillard Inc. from marketing
tobacco to young people. It also bans the use of the words “mild,”
“light” and “low-tar” on cigarette packs.
While the law also calls for all cigarette packs
to carry graphic warning labels, a U.S. judge blocked those rules in
November, saying the required images may violate tobacco companies’
free-speech rights. The FDA is appealing the ruling.
--Editor: Andrew Pollack, Adriel Bettelheim
To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelheim@bloomberg.net
