NJ’s Anti-Smoking Efforts Earn Low Marks In New Report

NEW JERSEY — While New Jersey has made some progress in reducing tobacco use among residents, a new report by the American Lung Association says lawmakers still have a ways to go when it comes to fully embracing the importance of eliminating its use altogether.

More than 480,000 people die annually from a smoking-related illness, according to the American Lung Association’s 20th annual State of Tobacco Control report released Tuesday. The report evaluates states as well as the federal government and their efforts to curb one of the nation’s leading causes of preventable death.

This year’s report also looks back on work done in the past 20 years and what still needs to be accomplished.

Much work has been done. The adult smoking rate has dropped from 21.6 percent in 2003 to 14 percent in 2019. Twenty-eight states are now considered “smoke-free.” The average state cigarette tax is now $1.91 per pack compared with $0.62 in 2003.

However, a new generation of products — including e-cigarettes, vapes and flavored tobacco products — is threatening the progress made, according to this year’s report. Progress in states has been uneven. Significant racial, social and geographical disparities also still exist.

“While there have been some promising announcements and actions taken by FDA in 2021, unnecessary addiction, disease, and death could have been prevented by more assertive federal government action on flavored tobacco products,” the report reads.

To calculate grades for each state, the American Lung Association compared state tobacco control policies to targets based on the organization’s criteria for effectively curbing tobacco use. Each state’s progress then received a grade of “A” through “F.” A grade of “A” is assigned for excellent tobacco control policies, while an “F” indicates inadequate policies.

Overall, New Jersey earned the following grades on this year’s report:

• Tobacco prevention and control funding: F
• Smokefree air: A
• Tobacco taxes: F
• Access to cessation services: F
• Flavored tobacco products: D

In the state, 10.8 percent of adults smoke. The rate is 3.8 percent among high school students, based on 2019 figures, and 1.2 percent of middle school students, which the report said was based on the 2015 Youth Tobacco Survey.

The American Lung Association said federal data estimate more than $4 billion is spent in New Jersey on health care costs attributable to smoking, and that nearly 12,000 state residents over 35 die each year from the health impacts of smoking.

New Jersey's best grade from the Lung Association was on smoke-free air, because of bans on smoking in most public places, including bars and restaurants, child care facilities and schools, and the controversial ban on smoking on the beach that went into effect in 2019.

But the association says the state still needs to permanently ban smoking in casinos. There has been a temporary ban on smoking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the association is urging New Jersey legislators to make it permanent.

New Jersey got bad grades on its efforts to deter smoking and to help smokers quit. The state takes in more than $838 million in tobacco revenues — cigarettes are taxed at $2.70 per pack of 20 — but spends $7.4 million on efforts to reduce the number of smokers. That is 9 percent of the $103 million the Centers for Disease Control says New Jersey should be spending on those efforts.

The American Lung Association wants to see the state double the amount it spends on its tobacco control program, to $15 million, and wants the state to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, as well as increase the cigarette tax and tax on other tobacco products "by a significant amount."

The American Lung Association also evaluates efforts at a federal level. The United States earned the following grades:

• Federal regulation of tobacco products: D
• Cessation coverage: D
• Tobacco taxes: F
• Mass media campaigns: A
• Minimum age: Incomplete

The American Lung Association then laid out four key actions for the Biden administration and Congress to take this year that may help eliminate death and disease caused by tobacco use.

1) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must not allow marketing of any product that fails to protect public health.

2) The Biden administration must propose and finalize rules to remove all menthol-flavored cigarettes and cigars from store shelves.

3) Congress must increase Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding to help states fight e-cigarette use among teens.

4) Health insurance plans, including Medicaid, must fully cover smoking cessation programs without barriers.

For more information on how to quit smoking or using tobacco products, the American Lung Association offers tools, tips, and support to help.