Tobacco Control Programs Work

Cigarette sales dropped more than twice as much during the1990s in four states with strongly funded tobacco control programsthan elsewhere in the United States, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new studyreports that cigarette sales fell 43% in Arizona, California, Massachusetts,and Oregon vs 20% in all other states between 1990 and 2000.The study is the first to include cigarette sales data from all states and toisolate the effects of tobacco control programs by controlling for excisetaxes, cross-border cigarette sales, and other state-specific factors. Itwas conducted by researchers at CDC, the Research Triangle Institute,and the University of Illinois at Chicago.