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American Legacy Foundation® Fights to Continue Life Saving Work in Ohio

6/5/2008

Statement by American Legacy Foundation President and CEO, Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H.

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday June 3, I was honored to have the opportunity to testify in front of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, emphasizing the critical need for tobacco prevention and cessation services to continue for the benefit of Ohioans.

The American Legacy Foundation intervened in this litigation to ask the court to declare valid the $190 million contract the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation courageously entered into with Legacy to assure that the life-saving work of tobacco control in Ohio would continue. After three days of testimony on Legacy’s motion for a preliminary injunction, the court asked the parties to make written submissions by June 27, 2008. The court also ruled that the freeze currently in effect will continue until a ruling on the preliminary injunction.

The Ohio Foundation was shut down by the state last month after it filed suit in an effort to protect its endowment from being raided to fund, in part, a proposed jobs program.

While Legacy did not ask for these funds, we are proud to fight to secure them in order to continue doing life saving work in the state. If we succeed in our legal claim, we pledge to use these funds for the benefit of Ohio and fully expect that we would create an Ohio office for this purpose.

During its existence, the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation made great strides in reducing tobacco use in the state. In 2001, Ohio’s adult smoking rate was 27.6 percent, significantly above the national average of 22.8 percent at the time. The Ohio smoking rate has now dropped to 22.4%, much closer to the national average of 20.8 percent. It is no coincidence that OTPF’s comprehensive prevention and cessation programs were fully engaged during those years. Public education efforts have been shown to markedly reduce smoking prevalence. Smoking rates rise when campaigns stop.

We are acutely aware of the price that Ohioans will pay if the state succeeds in diverting these funds from tobacco control. Eliminating the public education efforts as well as stopping the local grant funded programs that engage youth in prevention efforts and providing direct cessation efforts for adults has drastic public health consequences. Right now, according to the CDC, 18,000 Ohioans die each year of smoking related disease while an estimated 390,000 live with tobacco-related illnesses.

In addition, tobacco takes an enormous financial toll on Ohio – both in lives lost and dollars spent. Smoking costs Ohio over $4 billion in annual health care costs and another $4.7 billion annually in smoking-related productivity loss (in 2004 dollars). A 2007 report by the American Legacy Foundation found that Ohio’s Medicaid system could save nearly $550 million (in 2005 dollars) within five years if all Medicaid beneficiaries who smoke, quit. Ohio would reap the third largest savings of all the states, making the case that during this economic downturn in Ohio, these funds would in fact be a wiser long-term investment, if they remained focused on tobacco control and ultimately saving Ohioans’ lives and money.

The American Legacy Foundation^® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth^®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX^®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.

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Contact: Julia Cartwright, 202-550-2501 (mobile), jcartwright@americanlegacy.org