Tobacco-Use Reduction | 20192020annualreport

Initiatives

Reducing Tobacco Use in Kentucky

The Coalition for a Smoke-Free Tomorrow won three significant tobacco-use reduction policy goals in 2019 and 2020, building on its 2018 success to support the largest cigarette tax increase in Kentucky history. Staffed and led by our Foundation, we also addressed the youth “vaping” epidemic and began a multi-year campaign to allow Kentucky cities and counties to local adopt tobacco-control policies.

Tobacco 21

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell announced from the Foundation’s offices on April 18, 2019 his intent to file a federal bill to raise the national legal age for sales of tobacco products to 21. Thereafter, our Foundation worked closely with Sen. McConnell’s staff to craft a comprehensive Tobacco 21 bill that included underage persons serving in the military. The language was included in a year-end funding bill that was signed into law in December 2019, taking a critical step to reverse the dramatic, recent increase in youth and young-adult tobacco use fueled by the teen e-cigarette epidemic.

Kentucky still needed to update its statute to raise the legal sales age for tobacco, both for effective enforcement and also to protect youth from facing potentially worse health outcomes by getting caught in the legal system. We celebrated our second policy success on March 19, 2020, when the legislature adopted the bill later signed by Gov. Beshear. It is now illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21 in Kentucky and across the nation.

E-cigarette Tax

One evidence-based measure to reduce youth access to tobacco products is to make them more expensive. While Kentucky and the nation were in the midst of a youth e-cigarette epidemic, this category of tobacco products was the only one not subject to a state excise tax. Our Foundation and the Coalition brought our leverage to bear on this issue in 2020, as well. We achieved another major tobacco-control success when the legislature included an excise tax of $1.50/pod on closed vaping systems (where the pods or devices come pre-filled with liquid) and $0.15/ml on open systems (where the liquid and the devices are sold separately or can be refilled).

The bill included “opt-out” language – a compromise provision necessary to secure passage of what was otherwise a strong health measure. To encourage school districts to opt-in, the Foundation partnered with the Kentucky Medical Association to provide campus and school-vehicle signage, as well as pass-along cards to newly tobacco-free campuses on a first-come, first-served basis.

As of December 31, 2020, 97 percent of Kentucky school districts had adopted tobacco-free policies. Meanwhile, 14,300 tobacco-free campus signs are now on school campuses in 201 districts and 41 technology centers.

Tobacco-Free Schools Law and Signage Program

In 2019, 42 percent of Kentucky public school districts had voluntarily adopted tobacco-free campus policies. Our Foundation set out to protect all students by advocating for a statewide tobacco-free schools law. We recruited sponsors and championed the bill through the legislature. It was signed by the Governor on April 9, 2019.

I Just Didn’t Know Public Service Campaign

Kentucky teen-focus groups funded by our Foundation and conducted by Kentucky Youth Advocates revealed that many teens did not understand the dangers of smoking e-cigarettes. In 2019, we launched our first public service campaign to remedy that situation. The PSAs aired on television stations across the Commonwealth and were shared by local public health departments, Agency for Substance Abuse Policy Programs, health department directors, and health coalitions. In December 2019, the Cincinnati-based health nonprofit Interact for Health paid to run one of the ads on all four Cincinnati television stations for a month.

Local Tobacco Control

The Foundation also began a multi-year campaign in 2020 to repeal a state law that prohibits cities and counties in Kentucky from adopting ordinances that govern the marketing and sale of tobacco products in their communities. A grant from the American Heart Association in Kentucky helped fund this work.

For additional information about Tobacco-Use Reduction, please email our Vice President for Policy, Allison Adams.