News from the Noteworthy from Tobacco-Free Communities: Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie

Federal Cuts Make Local Control More Critical

This past February, the New York State Department of Health celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Tobacco Control Program. There was, and is, much to celebrate. When the TCP began in 2000, New York State’s adult smoking rate was 21.6 percent. By 2022, it had been halved, plummeting to 11.3 percent. Not coincidentally, the death rate from lung cancer in New York State fell by 50 percent, too. Incredibly, only 2.1 percent of New York State high-school students smoked in 2022, down from 27.1 percent in 2000. In addition to 100,000s of lives being saved, billions of dollars in healthcare costs associated with smoking were, too.

There is still work to be done. About 450,000 Americans, 30,000 of them New York State residents, die of tobacco-related diseases annually, the number one cause of preventable deaths. Almost 1 million New Yorkers live with a serious smoking-related illness. E-cigarette use among New York State high-school students has dropped significantly from the peak of 27.3 percent in 2018, but almost one in five still used them in 2022.

Those stats come from TCPs research and data collection, which inform and guide policy work at the state and local levels. Policies center on changing our environment and building a tobacco-free norm, which has shown to reduce tobacco use rates significantly. An example is New York State’s 2002 Clean Indoor Air Act, which banned smoking and then vaping indoors, almost everywhere except for people’s private residences.