Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance is dedicated to reducing tobacco use in Iowa and the death and disease associated with it.

The most effective way to reduce tobacco use is a three-pronged approach:

• 1 Protect people from secondhand smoke by passing smokefree policies.
• 2 Fully fund and implement a research-based tobacco control program to prevent kids from using tobacco products and to help those currently addicted to quit.
• 3 Regularly increase the price of tobacco products.

 

Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke is a serious public health problem in Iowa, and there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.  Everyone has the right to be protected from secondhand smoke in the home, in the workplace and in the community.  According to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, working on local smokefree air laws is one of the most cost-effective public health measures that money can buy. The mere process of enacting such laws acts as an educational campaign on the dangers of secondhand smoke for the entire community.  Such policies not only protect nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, but also help people to stop smoking.


 

This issue is one of health and is grounded in solid research and facts.  To get the facts on secondhand smoke and learn the science and policy needed to protect Iowans from this health hazard, click here.  Everyone has the right to breathe clean air. 

 

Prevention and Cessation

Iowa Department of Public Health, Division of Tobacco Use Control & Prevention

The mission of the Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control is to establish a comprehensive partnership among state government, local communities, and the people of Iowa to foster a social and legal climate in which tobacco use becomes undesirable and unacceptable.  To learn more about the IDPH Division of Tobacco Use Control & Prevention, click here.

 

The Division is structured to provide the components of a comprehensive tobacco control program as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

• Statewide programs
• Community-based and school-based interventions
• Counter marketing
• Cessation
• Enforcement
• Chronic disease programs
• Surveillance and evaluation
• Administration and management
  
  

The CDC recommends that Iowa spend a mininum of $19.3 million annually on tobacco control.  In fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008), Iowa is allocated $12.3 million, a significant increase from its fiscal year 2007 allocation of $6.5 million.  To learn more about the CDC's Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs, click here.





Tobacco Tax  

After a long five year battle and for the first time since 1991, the Iowa Legislature increased Iowa's cigarette tax by $1 bringing the total tax to $1.36 per pack.  Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance applauds the leadership of Governor Culver and the actions of the Iowa Legislature to pass this bipartisan tobacco excise tax legislation that will reduce tobacco use and ultimately save lives.  Iowa can expect the $1 per pack cigarette tax increase to prevent some 38,600 Iowa kids alive today from becoming smokers, save 17,600 Iowans from smoking-caused deaths, produce more than $860 million in long-term health care savings, and raise about $153 million a year in new revenue. (Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids)