Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118155

J. Douglas Matheny, MPH, CHES, Tobacco Use Prevention Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health, 1000 NE 10th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73117, 405-271-3619, dougm@health.state.ok.us, Joy L. Leuthard, MS, LSWA, c/o Oklahoma State Medical Association, Oklahoma Alliance on Health or Tobacco, 601 Northwest Grand Boulevard, Oklahoma City, OK 73118, and Joyce Morris, PhD, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Tobacco Use Prevention Service, 1000 NE 10th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73117-1299.

For over a decade, efforts by health advocacy groups to achieve evidence-based public policy essential to effectively reduce the relatively high rates of tobacco use in the State of Oklahoma had repeatedly failed, despite significant expenditure of time and resources. Described as a “love fest” in internal tobacco industry documents, an unusually powerful coalition of tobacco company and trade association lobbyists at the Oklahoma State Capitol had successfully blocked each year's tobacco control policy initiatives. As a result of courageous leadership from and extensive collaboration among members of the State Board of Health, a reorganized and strengthened state tobacco control coalition, state agencies and elected officials, Oklahoma adopted a progressive statewide clean indoor air law in 2003 and substantially increased state tobacco excise taxes in 2004. Also achieved in 2004 were landmark improvements in state law to reduce youth access to tobacco. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of a newly-created and constitutionally protected Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust allocated 100 percent of the endowment's earnings to support long-needed, statewide programs to reduce and prevent tobacco use. In a national “report card” issued annually by the American Lung Association, Oklahoma improved it's scores in the four reported areas from straight F's in 2002 to an overall D average in 2003 and an overall C average in 2004. Oklahoma now ranks in the top one-third of all states for its tobacco control policies and programs, demonstrating dramatic and potentially replicable progress few other states have experienced in such a short period of time.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify the broad collaborative processes involved in achieving recent major tobacco control policy and program advances in Oklahoma.
• Participants will be able to compare and contrast Oklahoma’s current tobacco control policies and programs with corresponding efforts in other states.

Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Tobacco Taxation

Related Web page: integrislifespan.com/tobacco_home.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.