Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 1, 2019
Tobacco control report indicates troubling trend
Wisconsin last passed tobacco-related legislation in 2009
By Nicholas Dettmann
ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043
WEST BEND — Disappointing. Staggering. Those were two words
Dona Wininsky, the American Lung Association’s director for advocacy,
grassroots and patient engagement in Wisconsin, used to describe Wisconsin’s
work in tobacco prevention efforts.
On Wednesday, the 17th annual State of Tobacco Control
report was released by the ALA. The report gave grades to each state and the
District of Columbia in five areas — tobacco prevention and control program
funding; smoke-free air; tobacco taxes; access to cessation services and;
minimum age.
Wisconsin got an “A” in smoke-free fair, but got an “F” in
three categories (prevention and funding, cessation services and minimum age)
and a “D” in tobacco taxes. And with the tobacco tax grade, that is a drop from
a “B” only a few years ago.
“It’s definitely not good that we only have one ‘A’ on the
report card, and the cigarette tax grade has dropped from a ‘B’ a few years ago
to a ‘D,’” Wininsky said. “That’s because other states in the country have
raised theirs, making the national average go up.”
In other words, Wisconsin needs to wake up.
“Wisconsin hasn’t passed any significant tobacco control
policy in 10 years while other states are, whether it’s increasing their
cigarette tax, raising the legal age to purchase from 18 to 21, adding
e-cigarettes to their smoke-free air law or something else,” Wininsky said. “We
haven’t done any of that. We’re just stuck.”
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Breaking down the report
States that showed improvement were Alaska, Maine and
Massachusetts, as well as District of Columbia. Mississippi, Missouri, Texas
and Virginia got failing grades in all five categories.
In tobacco program funding, only three states got a “C” or
better. District of Columbia and 43 states got an “F.” Smokefree air is the
area that states, as well D.C., did the best, with 37 states and D.C., getting
at least a “C,” including 23 states and D.C. getting an “A.” D.C. got the only
“A” in tobacco taxes, while 34 states got an “F.” Five states, plus D.C., got
an “A” in having the legal age to purchase tobacco be 21 or older. Forty states
got an “F” in that category.
In 2009, Wisconsin passed the smokefree air law, which
prohibited smoking inside places such as bars and bowling alleys. That is the
last piece of legislation passed by Wisconsin related to tobacco prevention
efforts.
At the time, Wininsky said “it was huge” for Wisconsin to
pass that law and had reason to believe it was headed in the right direction.
That was because vaping and e-cigarettes hadn’t been invented yet.
“Passing a statewide smoke-free air law is one of the
cornerstones of what the CDC recommends in terms of an effective
tobacco-control policy,” Wininsky said.
Now that the tobacco industry has evolved, Wisconsin, as
well as many other states quickly fell behind.
“Wisconsin’s grades haven’t changed over the last several
years,” Wininsky said.
“In the meantime, the industry and when I say industry I
mean that more broadly, not just tobacco industry, but tobacco and vaping
industry, have developed and introduced and marketed all kinds of new products,
nicotine-based and tobacco-based products that are specifically geared toward
hooking the next generation of smokers,” she said.
One statistic revealed in the report appears to support
that.
In Wisconsin, e-cigarette use by Wisconsin high schoolers
grew 78 percent from 2017 to 2018 (11.7 percent to 20.8 percent).
“That is staggering,” Wininsky said. “These are the kids
that have heard the message that smoking is bad for you. They wouldn’t dream of
touching a cigarette, but they’ve been convinced by marketing that this isn’t
harmful; it’s just plain, old water vapor, which is an outright lie.”
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How to fix the grades
Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18
to 21 and to raise the tobacco tax are two areas that can help swing the grades
in a positive direction, Wininsky said. Other states are trying to do so.
In the last five years, six states have upped the legal age
from 18 to 21. Illinois and Minnesota have longdebated the issue. In Illinois,
Wininsky said, the legislation moved through that state’s Legislature, but was
vetoed by the governor. In Minnesota, it is working on doing it on a
community-by-community basis.
About 10 years ago, Wisconsin had a “B” in tobacco taxes.
But, because other states have upped their tax rates, the national average has
changed and states that did that passed up Wisconsin, bringing the Dairy State
closer to the national average, thus leading to a lower grade. Ten years ago,
the Wisconsin tobacco tax was $2.52. It’s still that number today. The national
average now is $1.78.
Data supplied by Wininsky indicated for each 10 percent
price increase of cigarettes leads to a 7 percent reduction of use by youth and
3
to 5 percent reduction of use by adults. The data also
emphasized the need to increase taxes on tobacco products such as cigars.
If those areas are addressed, Wininsky and the American Lung
Association’s Wisconsin office believes the grades will improve.
“Having high tobacco taxes is another cornerstone because we
know that people and in particular who use are very price sensitive,” Wininsky
said. “You can see a correlating drop in smoking rates when the tobacco rates
go up because cigarettes start to cost more.” The effects of smoking have been
well-documented. There is also billions of dollars invested in the industry.
Wininsky said tobacco companies spend upward of $10 billion in marketing their
products. According to the report, in 2018, more than $2.6 billion is spent by
consumers on health care costs because of smoking. But Wininsky also pointed to
something else from research. “There are enough studies on nicotine and the
developing brain that we know that the adolescent brain, the brain in general is
not fully developed until the early 20s,” she said. “So we’ve got kids
experimenting with these at 12, 13, 14, 15 (years old) and altering their brain
chemistry and their priming their brains for future addictions.” Going forward,
the American Lung Association’s Wisconsin office has set three goals aimed to
improve the state’s grades:
■
Protect and increase funding for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program
■
Equalize the tax on little cigars (brown cigarettes) with regular cigarettes
■ Pass
legislation that places all tobacco products behind the counter or in a locked
cabinet “The bottom line is we’ve got to start taking some action,” Wininsky
said. “We’ve been pretty much dormant in terms of tobacco control for 10 years.
We have to step up the game or we’re going to see a lot of the progress we’ve
already made go by the wayside.”
