The American Lung Association recently released its annual report card, and Arkansas saw some substantial improvement from last year, thanks to legislation passed in 2006.

The legislature met in special session and enacted the Clean Indoor Air Act in April 2006, which went into effect three months later. State lawmakers said secondhand smoke was a public health emergency, and that act gave the state an A on the American Lung Association's report card. Arkansas is one of two Southern states — Louisiana is the other — to get an A.

Overall, Arkansas progressed from an A, two D's and an F on the 2005 report to two A's, a C and a D on the 2006 report.

The D was the same for both years and concerns tobacco taxes. Arkansas has one of the lowest tobacco tax rates in the country.

"The tax is 59 cents," pointed out April Wingfield, director of communications for the American Lung Association of Arkansas. "The national average is a dollar. But some places are much higher. New Jersey is $2.575 and Chicago is $3.66 a pack. And that's in addition to what the companies are already
charging."

The lowest is South Carolina's at seven cents a pack; South Carolina was one of several states to get all F's.

Wingfield added that if Arkansas was to raise the tax and also tighten up the wording on enforcement, the state could easily improve its grades.

Arkansas was also one of nine states to see an A grade in tobacco prevention programs. Some of that is due to the efforts of former state legislator Jay Bradford and the plans for the tobacco settlement funds. The funds are dedicated to education, whereas in other states, they have been put into general or rainy day funds.

Nationally, Maine was the only state to see all A's. Josie Huang, who covers healthcare for the Portland Press Herald and Sunday Maine Telegram, said, "The legislature here has been very aggressive. They have done a lot towards tobacco education and enforcement."

As a result, youth tobacco use has dropped by nearly 60 percent since 1997 in Maine.

March 2007