Anti-tobacco efforts praised Maine program earns high grades

When it comes to regulating tobacco consumption, Maine compares well with other states, according to a report released early today by the American Lung Association.

On four key measures the state got two A grades, a B and a C. The four measures, respectively, are spending on anti-smoking programs; restrictions on youth access to tobacco; cigarette taxes; and smoke-free air rules for public and private places.

Maine was among just four states – California, New York and Rhode Island were the others – that earned two A grades.

“It certainly is a good reflection of how Maine is doing compared to other states,” said Ed Miller, president of the American Lung Association of Maine.

The association calculated that smoking costs Maine $876 million a year in health care costs and lost work time. Nearly a quarter of Maine’s adults and high school students smoke.

Although Maine’s smoking rates dropped in the 1990s, anti-smoking advocates are eager to get the rates down further through education and cessation efforts.

Maine tied for seventh with nine other states for its $1-a-pack tobacco tax.

Maine placed sixth best for its policies regulating smoking at work, school, bars and other establishments. In 1999 a law went into effect banning smoking in all restaurants. Maine was the only state that got a C, with most states getting a D or F.

Miller said the ranking downgraded Maine because state statute allows smoking in designated areas (rooms that must meet special ventilation requirements) in places such as schools and hospitals. There are few of these special rooms statewide. He knows of no school that has one, he said.

Changing that law isn’t on the association’s agenda this year. Miller said his group’s first smoking priority is to maintain the use of about $50 million Maine receives annually as its portion of a settlement to a lawsuit brought by 45 states against tobacco companies for health care-related programs. In July 2001 the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids ranked Maine first among states in using the funds for health-related programs. Gov.-elect John Baldacci already has made a campaign pledge not to tap the money for other uses.

Miller said the association will support a bill to be sponsored this session by Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, to eliminate the exemption that allows smoking in taverns, lounges and most pool halls. The issue is likely to be contentious: In 2000 a similar bill was defeated after a three-hour-long public hearing before the Health and Human Services Committee. Almost all of the speakers were against it.

Miller said predictions that eliminating smoking from restaurants and bars in California would be economically disastrous haven’t come true. Now, he said, his association plans to argue that exceptions for bars and the like in Maine should be eliminated as a matter of fairness to their workers and to restaurants where smoking is prohibited.