“Tobacco still remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease for Mississippians, claiming over 5,000 lives every year,” said Calandra Davis, Mississippi advocacy director for the American Lung Association.
More Mississippians die from heart disease and cancer than any other disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both diseases can be caused by or exacerbated through tobacco use.
“Mississippi isn't doing all that we can to prevent these deaths,” Davis said, expressing concern about the level of tobacco taxes in the state as well as how funds are spent.
“Mississippi received over $200 million from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes,” she said. “Yet only a small percentage of those funds are going towards actual tobacco control programs.”
Davis said the elimination of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health last year made it tough for tobacco control programs across the country.
“A lot of important funding was blocked or prohibited from being sent down to state offices,” she said. “So even in Mississippi, our programming has been impacted because of what's happening on the federal level. There have been staff cuts where we were already failing before this happened.”
Davis wants Mississippi to enforce a comprehensive statewide smoke-free law, including stronger smoke-free ordinances in businesses and work spaces, better tobacco insurance coverage and the expansion of insurance access.
