PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island continues to woefully underfund tobacco prevention programs and struggle to end the same off all flavored tobacco products across the state as part of a mixed review by the American Lung Association in its 22nd annual State of Tobacco Control report released Wednesday.
The prominent national lung health advocacy organization conducts an annual review of all 50 U.S. states on their respective efforts to eliminate tobacco use. Rhode Island does receive passing grades on smoke-free air, taxes on tobacco products and access to cessation services, however, the state again earned a low grade on eliminating flavored tobacco sales and a failing grade on funding tobacco prevention programs.
Rhode Island, per the report, received “B” grades again both on tobacco taxes and access to cessation services, such as Medicaid, medicine and counseling services. The state’s cigarette tax rate remains at $4.25 per pack.
The state saw a significant grade decrease from last year on smoke-free air, going from having an “A” grade in 2023 to a “C” grade. The lung association says in its report that while Rhode Island prohibits public smoking in many places, including schools, private work sites, retail stores and restaurants, smoking is still allowed in “smoking bars,” and at casinos and gaming establishments within designated areas.
“Closing the loophole in our smoke-free air law to eliminate smoking in all public places and workplaces, including casinos, would protect workers across the state from deadly secondhand smoke,” said Daniel Fitzgerald, director of advocacy at the American Lung Association in Rhode Island, in a statement.
Rhode Island also again got another “F” in its report card from the lung association on funding tobacco control and prevention programs. The state in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the lung association, spent $1.8 million toward those programs, most of it coming from federal dollars. That is still much lower than the $12.8 million that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Rhode Island should spend, the lung association says.
It's the same grade that the Ocean State received from the lung association
last year,
in 2022,
in 2020 and
in 2019. Rhode Island is also one of 41 states, including Massachusetts, to get an “F” for tobacco prevention program funding this year.
Rhode Island also last year collected $188.9 million in state tobacco revenue, but still spends close to $640 million on health care costs related to smoking, the lung association says. The lung association again gave Rhode Island a “D” grade for restrictions on flavored tobacco products.
“We are urging the state legislature to adequately fund tobacco control efforts at or above the CDC-recommended level and pass legislation to ensure all Rhode Islanders are protected from a lifetime of tobacco dependence and disease,” Fitzgerald said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
