New Tobacco Tax Bill: Senators Steinberg and Padilla Launch New Efforts witth the Aid of El Dorado Youth

Health Groups Launch New Effort to Increase Tobacco Tax

New tobacco tax would reduce teen smoking, fight lung cancer and pump nearly $1 billion into the state’s General Fund

(SACRAMENTO, CA, March 10, 2009) Today, the state’s leading voluntary health organizations introduced legislation to increase California’s tobacco tax by an additional $1.50 per pack in order to reduce youth smoking, fight lung cancer and provide needed revenue to the cash-strapped state.

“Increasing the tobacco tax and investing in tobacco prevention is the single best way to reduce youth smoking”, said Trisha Murakawa, Board Chair for the American Lung Association of California. “This bill will help the state counter the cigarette makers’ multi-million dollar marketing campaign that is intended to lure children into a life-long addiction to tobacco.”

The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society are sponsoring Senate Bill 600, which would increase the tobacco tax an additional $1.50 per pack and raise nearly $1.2 billion for the General Fund, tobacco prevention and lung cancer research. California’s current tobacco tax is $.87/pack, ranking it 31^st in the nation, among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The $1.50 per pack would be on top of the existing $.87/pack, making California’s state tobacco tax $2.37 per pack or the fifth highest in the nation.

If passed, Senate Bill 600 would be the first increase in California’s tobacco tax in more than a decade. In that same period of time, 44 states have increased the tobacco tax 90 times, by Republican and Democratic majority legislatures, and signed into law by Republican and Democratic governors. Arkansas was the latest state to increase its tobacco tax, an additional 56 cents a pack, which went into effect March 1, 2009.

“A tobacco tax increase is long overdue in California,” said Charlie Smith, Board Chair of the American Cancer Society’s California Division. “This bill is the American Cancer society’s top priority in Sacramento because smoking is the single largest cause of cancer deaths. Raising the tax and using some of the proceeds to fund the state’s successful tobacco prevention program are proven methods to drive down smoking rates.”

Tobacco is a significant drain on the state’s human and financial resources. According to The Cost of Smoking in California (funded by the California Department of Health Services, 2002) smoking costs California nearly $16 billion a year in direct and indirect medical expenses and lost productivity. Direct health care costs of smoking account for 54 percent of the total cost of smoking in California, or $8.6 billion.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are nearly 35,000 smoking attributable deaths per year in California, making tobacco the number one preventable cause of deaths in the state. Nearly one in five deaths in the state is caused by tobacco.

Heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States, claiming the lives of approximately 2,400 Americans each day, an average of one death every 37 seconds. Tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States and leading controllable risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Passage of a $1.50 tobacco tax will result in a 5-year health savings of $65.1 million dollars from fewer smoking-caused heart attacks and strokes.

“SB 600 is the most important health related bill this year and our number one priority because we know raising the tax on tobacco and allocating money to California’s tobacco control program will save lives. We commend the Senator for his leadership on this issue and his commitment to reduce tobacco use among Californians and our most precious resource, our youth.” Dr. John Schafer, Past Chair American Heart Association Western States Affiliate Board.

To find better early detection methods and treatments to help those with lung cancer, SB 600 would establish the first ever Lung Cancer Early Detection and treatment Research program. While California's tobacco prevention program is largely responsible for lung cancer rates in California declining at nearly four times faster than in the rest of the nation, more needs to be done.

Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the United States. Lung cancer causes more deaths than the next three most common cancers combined (colon, breast and prostate). An estimated 160,390 deaths from lung cancer will occur in the United States this year. Unfortunately, lung cancer research into better early detection and screening methods has not received sufficient funding over the last several years, thus lung cancer survival rates have remained flat for the past 30 years.

To support the effort to pass SB 600, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society will be coordinating a statewide grassroots and media campaign that emphasizes public support for increasing the tobacco tax. In particular, the health organizations will be targeting grassroots activities in legislative district s that will be important to winning a two-thirds vote in each legislative house.

###