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D.C. gets 'F' for tobacco policies
(Published January 12, 2004)

The District has received failing grades in a national report that analyzes government policies to protect the public from tobacco-related diseases.

The American Lung Associa-tion’s "State of Tobacco Control 2003" report as-signed a grade of "F" to the District for smoke-free air laws "among the worst in the country" and for failing to spend any of the $521 million it received from the 1998 nationwide tobacco settlement on anti-smoking efforts.

The annual report gave the District a nearly failing grade of "D" for its policies toward allowing youth access to tobacco products. The District’s highest grade – a "C" – was awarded for raising its cigarette excise tax from 65 cents to $1 per pack in January 2003, an action the report called "a step in the right direction for tobacco prevention and control."

Overall, 38 states and the District received an "F" in funding tobacco prevention and control programs. The District and 35 states received an "F" in smoke-free air laws.

Advocates of a smoke-free workplace bill pending before the D.C. City Council are promoting the report as evidence that the District’s laws need to be strengthened to protect the public from secondhand smoke. The lung association said 20.8 percent of D.C. adults are smokers and 250 out of every 100,000 people in the District die from a smoking-related cause.

"If New York City and Boston can go smokefree, there is no reason why Washington, D.C., cannot do it too," said Rolando Andrewn, chief executive officer of the American Lung Associa-tion of the District of Columbia.