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.

The TCP’s data and research also inform and guide 20 Advancing Tobacco Free Communities organizations, which use it to work with local governments, employers, and residents on creating tobacco-free spaces where people live, work, and play. As more TF spaces are created, tobacco use goes down, and critically, prevents youth from ever initiating tobacco use, which can lead to lifelong addictions.

I do that for Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie. I have the TCP’s data showing that while New York State’s statewide adult smoking rate is only 11.3 percent, rural counties like ours have rates above that. The research shows adult smoking rates in the DOS area are: 16.1 percent for Delaware County, 18.3 percent for Otsego, and 20.3 percent for Schoharie, in 2021.

ATFC staff also share research with their communities, including the fact that the tobacco industry continues to spend over $9 billion annually to market its products aggressively to our children to tempt them into initiating tobacco use and become, in the industry’s words, “the replacement generation.” We share that along with rural populations, other groups have higher smoking rates than their counterparts: people of color, LGBTQ+ members, those from low-income backgrounds, and with mental illnesses and disabilities. People from these often-intersecting groups often struggle to afford and access healthcare, making it more perilous for them if they get a tobacco-related disease.

All of these statistics and data have been crucial to the TCP’s successes, efforts, and understanding the new and continuing challenges in reducing tobacco addiction, disease, and death.

Since late January 2025, though, the TCP has lost data and staff that is already impacting its effectiveness. Ironically, as the TCP was celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Trump administration was enacting steep cuts to federal tobacco control agencies. The cuts eliminated the federal Centers for Disease Control’s Office on Smoking and Health and key components of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. According to a May 15 “New York Times” article, “Trump Budget Cuts Hobble Antismoking Programs,” experts on tobacco control are predicting they “would set back a quarter-century of public health efforts that have driven the smoking rate to a record low and saved lives and billions of dollars in health care spending.”

The elimination of OSH, which had allocated $100 million of its $260 million annual budget to states, has already affected states’ tobacco control programs, including New York’s. Most of the state’s DOH staff who guided our local work have been cut because their positions were funded by the CDC.

New York State’s DOH will also lose valuable national research on tobacco use. The FDA’s annual National Youth Tobacco Survey, which has tracked youth e-cigarette use, especially flavored e-cigarettes, will not be done after 2025. The FDA’s CTP lost staff who prevented retailers from selling tobacco to minors and marketing illicit vapes. This is a concerning health problem because youth have continued to acquire and use flavored e-cigarettes with ever higher concentrations of nicotine despite laws prohibiting the selling of flavored vapes and the selling of tobacco products to minors.

These cuts make the TCP’s mission and our efforts to reduce tobacco use rates locally even more important. New York State, counties, and municipalities can still work to create tobacco-free spaces and prevent youth from ever initiating tobacco use. We look forward to continuing our work even if the federal cuts have hobbled it for now.

Jennifer Hill is the community engagement coordinator for Tobacco-Free Communities: Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie.