May 21, 2013
A study says federal anti-smoking efforts help cut down the number of smokers.
The study looked at Indiana and 16 other states where the federal government spent $128 million to discourage tobacco use. It found smoking dropped by about three percentage points over eight years. It's just over half a point more than in states without the program, and works out to about $1200 per former smoker. One researcher at the University of California, San Diego, says that's a bargain in terms of prevented illnesses.
Another researcher says the program would have resulted in nearly 27,000 non-smokers if it were nationwide. He's at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study is in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
