American Lung Association’s tobacco report card on NJ
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The New Jersey Star-Ledger shared the annual American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control Report on NJ, which dropped NJ’s grades from 2014. The new grades for NJ are two Fs, a D and one A. Deborah Brown, president and CEO of the ALA’s Mid-Atlantic region stated, “this is just really unacceptable.”
The ALA annual report card is a state-by-state assessment that evaluates tobacco control policies at the federal and state level, with grades based on the strength of laws designed to protect residents from the toll of tobacco.
The Star-Ledger reported that New Jersey receives annually nearly $1 billion from state tobacco taxes and the Master Settlement Agreement that most states signed with the major tobacco companies years ago — but spends none of it for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that New Jersey allocation $103 million per year for such programs.