The Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow has signed on more than a dozen additional organizations since it launched two weeks ago, bringing its number of supporters to over 100 members and partners.
"Every day, more organizations join our campaign because they see the fundamental link between our state's dismal health and our high tobacco use, and they know we have to build a new generation of nonsmokers," Ben Chandler, chair of the coalition and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which staffs the coalition, said in a news release.
Supporters of the new campaign to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in Kentucky range from major employers like Toyota Motor Manufacturing and UPS to faith-based groups and local health departments. Click here for a complete list of supporters.
The coalition has set three goals: raising the state's cigarette tax by $1 or more per pack, with parallel increases in taxes on other tobacco products; helping counties and cities enact comprehensive smoking bans; and educating the public and health-care providers about a new law that requires health insurers to provide barrier-free coverage for all federally approved tobacco-cessation medications and programs.
The release notes that raising the cigarette tax by $1 a pack would keep 23,200 youth from becoming adults who smoke. Almost 17 percent of Kentucky's high-school students are smokers; the national average is 8 percent.
"Kentucky is one of the cheapest places in the nation to purchase tobacco products, and that's a big reason why our youth smoking rate is more than twice the national average," Chandler said.
The coalition says cigarette taxes need to be raised by $1 or more per pack because anything less could be absorbed by the tobacco companies through temporary price cuts, coupons or other promotional discounting. "Smaller increases do not produce the significant health benefits or health care cost savings," says the release.
Leaders of companies and organizations who would like to join the coalition can do so on the website.
"Every day, more organizations join our campaign because they see the fundamental link between our state's dismal health and our high tobacco use, and they know we have to build a new generation of nonsmokers," Ben Chandler, chair of the coalition and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which staffs the coalition, said in a news release.
Supporters of the new campaign to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in Kentucky range from major employers like Toyota Motor Manufacturing and UPS to faith-based groups and local health departments. Click here for a complete list of supporters.
The release notes that raising the cigarette tax by $1 a pack would keep 23,200 youth from becoming adults who smoke. Almost 17 percent of Kentucky's high-school students are smokers; the national average is 8 percent.
"Kentucky is one of the cheapest places in the nation to purchase tobacco products, and that's a big reason why our youth smoking rate is more than twice the national average," Chandler said.
The coalition says cigarette taxes need to be raised by $1 or more per pack because anything less could be absorbed by the tobacco companies through temporary price cuts, coupons or other promotional discounting. "Smaller increases do not produce the significant health benefits or health care cost savings," says the release.
Leaders of companies and organizations who would like to join the coalition can do so on the website.
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