The state of Florida is being pushed to reconsider its habits after receiving an F rating for funding for state tobacco prevention programs from the American Lung Association.
According to a ‘State of Tobacco Control’ report, Florida failed to enact sufficient preventative policies for tobacco use, the nation’s leading cause of preventative death and disease in 2019. It called for officials to take action to increase tobacco control and prevention funding in 2020.
The report read that despite Florida receiving $1.53 billion from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes last year, the state funded control efforts at only 38.4 percent of the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida also received a D for its access to services that help people quit tobacco, which surprised Jacquelyn Moreau, an education and training specialist at UF’s Area Health Education Center.
She said Alachua County has some of the best tobacco cessation services in the country, as they more than double a person’s chance of quitting through counseling, nicotine replacement therapy and free classes held by tobacco treatment specialists.
Moreau said the Florida Department of Health Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida is responsible for the state’s tobacco prevention program funding.
Alachua County’s programs are offered by UF Health and Suwannee River Area Health Education Center, which cover UF and the rest of the county respectively, Moreau said. They include online, phone and in-person services, a variety she said most states do not provide.
The report gave Florida failing grades for its level of state tobacco taxes and the raising of its minimum age of sale for tobacco products to 21.
Lauren Pierson manages Suwannee River Area Health Education Center’s tobacco program and said Alachua County was ahead of the curve in the latter category, being the first county in Florida to raise the age back in October.
Pierson said the rating was not unprecedented.
“It is similar to previous years,” she said. “We’re always working as hard as we can to improve that rating and really follow best practices.”
Ashley Lyerly, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association, said even though there has been progress in counties like Alachua, the report only highlights the state legislature.
“We haven’t seen that level of interest and action at the state level,” she said. “It still has a long way to go.
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention primarily funds the state tobacco prevention funding.
New York City’s City Council adopted a bill Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013, to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Florida law made it difficult for Gainesville to adopt similar limitations.
