Best Practices: Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs

These are some highlights from the recently released Best Practices document from the CDC. Follow this link to find the complete CDC document: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tobacco_control_programs/stateandcommunity/best_practices/index.htm

The more states spend on comprehensive tobacco control programs, the greater the reductionsin smoking—and the longer states invest in such programs, the greater and faster the impact.Evidence-based statewide tobacco control programs that are comprehensive, sustained, andaccountable have been shown to reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths and disease.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the recommended level of investment for tobacco prevention and control in Virginia is $103.2 million per year, or $13.50 per capita.

In Virginia, an estimated 9,300 adults are projected to die each year from smoking.For each person who dies, another 20 people are suffering with at least one serioustobacco-related illness.
If current smoking rates among people younger than age 18 continue, an estimated 152,000 of these Virginia youth are projected to die from smoking.