Tobacco position statements – 2/4/11

Q: Alabama is looking for examples of state health department position statements on tobacco. If your state health department has a position statement to share, please email a copy, or a link to where it can be found, to the TCN.

A:

1. Arkansas: Here is a position statement on e-cigarettes from the Arkansas Department of Health.
    
2. Michigan: Please see attached for two position statements from the Michigan Department of Community Health, Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. One is on emerging tobacco products and the other is about hookah use.
    
   • Position Statement on Tobacco Harm Reduction
   • Position Statement on Hookah Use
      
3. Rhode Island: See attached for Rhode Island's position statement on tobacco and emerging products, specifically e-cigarettes.
    
4. Utah: Here is a link to Utah's position statement on tobacco and new products.
    
5. West Virginia: Attached are two position statements on tobacco from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Public Health.
    
   • Position Statement on Clean Indoor Air Regulation in West Virginia: Epidemiological Basis for an Occupational and Environmental Policy on Secondhand Tobacco Smoke (SHS)
   • Position Statement Opposing Use of Snus or Any Form of Tobacco As a Less Harmful Cessation Treatment in West Virginia: Epidemiological Basis for a Policy Opposing Use of Any Form of Tobacco as a ‘Less Harmful’ Tobacco Substitute
      
   Additionally, from West Virginia State Code:
   
   §16-9B-1. Findings and purpose.
   (a) Cigarette smoking presents serious public health concerns to the state and to the citizens of the state. The surgeon general has determined that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease and other serious diseases, and that there are hundreds of thousands of tobacco-related deaths in the United States each year. These diseases most often do not appear until many years after the person in question begins smoking.
   (b) Cigarette smoking also presents serious financial concerns for the state. Under certain health-care programs, the state may have a legal obligation to provide medical assistance to eligible persons for health conditions associated with cigarette smoking, and those persons may have a legal entitlement to receive such medical assistance.
   (c) Under these programs, the state pays millions of dollars each year to provide medical assistance for these persons for health conditions associated with cigarette smoking.
    
   §16-9C-1. Findings and purpose.
   (a) Cigarette smoking presents serious public health concerns as well as serious financial concerns for the state. In response, the state pursued legal claims against leading tobacco product manufacturers to recover damages caused by the public health and financial consequences of cigarette smoking. On the twenty-third day of November, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, leading United States tobacco product manufacturers entered into a settlement agreement, entitled "master settlement agreement", with the state. The master settlement agreement obligates these manufacturers to pay substantial sums to the state in exchange for a release of past, present and future claims against them.

Editor’s note: The Tobacco Control Network released a tobacco control policy statement in fall 2010. Attached are a one-page summary and the full document. The policy statement represents a consensus of the members’ position on tobacco-related policies that reduce tobacco use and sustain changes in social norms.

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) also released a position statement on tobacco in November 2010.

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