The cut of Nebraska's tobacco control program from $3 million in spending in fiscal year 2007 to $2.4 million for fiscal year 2012 puts the state in the company of states cutting tobacco prevention programs, but may set the state up for future spending, based on two reports released this week.

A report released today by a national coalition of public health organizations shows that states have slashed funding for programs to reduce tobacco use by 12 percent in the past year and by 36 percent over the past four years, threatening the nation’s progress against tobacco.

And research released earlier this week said funding such tobacco control programs at recommended levels could save 14 to 20 times more than the cost of implementing the programs.

“It is truly penny-wise and pound-foolish for the states to cut funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association. “These programs not only reduce smoking, but also lower tobacco-related health care costs that total nearly $100 billion annually. Tobacco prevention programs are smart investments that save lives and money.”

The states in fiscal year 2012 will collect a near-record $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it – $456.7 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use.

In Nebraska, total funding of $2.4 million is a mere 11 percent of the $21.5 million that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend be spent here to reduce tobacco use. Nebraska ranks 25th nationally for funding of state tobacco prevention programs, based on percent spent of the CDC's recommended levels.

Nebraska's $2.4 million planned for 2012 to reduce tobacco use compares to $66.5 million that was spent in tobacco company marketing in the state in 2008, meaning that tobacco companies outspend Nebraska by 28.1 to 1, and that to reduce tobacco use, Nebraska spends just 3.6 percent of the amount tobacco companies spend to spur it.

Both the total amounts states are spending nationally on tobacco prevention programs and the percentage of tobacco revenue spent on these programs are the lowest since 1999, when the states first received significant tobacco settlement funds.

A study published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy said that smoking costs affect the states through medical costs, Medicaid payments and lost productivity by workers. The researchers used data from 1991 to 2007, when states paid for the tobacco control programs with the help of the tobacco taxes, public and private initiatives and funds from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement between the nation’s four largest tobacco companies and 46 states. If states funded anti-smoking efforts at levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the study, they could save 14 to 20 times their investment.

The coalition report, titled “A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later,” warns that continued progress against tobacco use – the nation’s number one cause of preventable death – is at risk unless states increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In Nebraska, more than 18 percent of adults smoked in 2008.

The report also calls on states to increase tobacco taxes.

The report was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. Issued annually, the report assesses whether states have kept their promise to use tobacco settlement funds – expected to total $246 billion over the first 25 years – to fight tobacco use.

View the full coalition report and state-specific information.

Tobacco companies researched the relationship of smoking and drinking in smokers and then identified and put in place marketing to specifically capitalize on that relationship, according to a new University of California study published online in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study, published online prior to October print publication, finds that tobacco companies performed extensive research on smokers' alcohol-related behaviors, and pursued a wide variety of marketing strategies to capitalize on those behaviors.

The study's authors investigated tobacco companies' knowledge about smokers' simultaneous smoking and drinking. The study also looked at marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol and the benefits tobacco companies sought from these marketing strategies 

Tobacco company investigation indeed confirmed the association between alcohol use and tobacco use, according to what the researchers found in tobacco company documents. Researchers identified three main types of marketing strategies that tobacco companies used to link cigarettes with alcohol. That marketing included joint sponsorship, joint promotion and cigarette promotions featuring alcohol or alcohol paraphernalia.

Tobacco companies' numerous marketing strategies linking cigarettes with alcohol may have reinforced the use of both substances, according to the study's authors.

This week "60 Minutes" posted a story about what it describes as the "most famous and controversial whistleblower piece in the annals of '60 Minutes.'"

According to "60 Minutes," whenever it broadcasts a whistleblower story, conversation there always turns to this particular piece: An interview with former big tobacco research scientist Jeffrey Wigand.

Mr. Wigand, who since has made appearances in Nebraska telling his story, was, according to "60 Minutes," "the first major tobacco insider to reveal that cigarette companies were consciously trying to get us hooked on nicotine, despite tobacco executives' public statements to the contrary."

The historic importance of this story has prompted "60 Minutes" to post the full interview of the tobacco industry whisteblower, which was aired in two parts, so that it will be available for all interested in viewing it.

Mr. Wigand's choice to act as a whistleblower came at great personal cost. He suffered job loss, loss of health insurance, marriage problems and threats on the lives of his children.

The story inspired the Hollywood movie, "The Insider."

Whether you have never seen this interview or have seen it time and time again, it's worth another look.