Texas Reduces Amount Allocated To Tobacco Prevention Programmee

Texas is one of the places in the US where children get into smoking from a very tender age, say about 14 years. This has led to a rise in the number of cancer cases and eventually death in young age. Not for once but for many times it has been said that tobacco is one such cause of death in Texas which could be preventable. In Texas alone, more than 24,000 people die annually, but it seems very little on the part of the state government to be doing something about it. There is no end to revenues which gets generated from tobacco tax or from other tobacco settlements. But in comparison to last year allocation of money being used on activities that would focus on preventing tobacco use is quite less. As per official figures, more than $1.9 billion is generated for this year but only $5.5 million is allocated for such activities, which is quiet less than the amount that was allocate last year, said James Gray who is Texas Director of government relations for the American Cancer Society. Tobacco prevention activities are one of the most effective methods to prevent youth from smoking. This fact is not hidden from the state government and then also if they are not encouraging such activities by not spending appropriate fund then they are giving rise to tobacco-related illnesses. These diseases need lot of money which is not only taxing for patients but also for the state health system. This was the reason that the multistate lawsuit was filed against tobacco giants in 1998. As per this settlement, tobacco company owners had agreed to pay Texas $15 billion over 25 years as a part of compensation. All these facts have been added in the study called "A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later” which was taken out by number of health institutions.