Bismarck Tobacco Free Coalition

Saving Lives ­­Saving Money:

North Dakota’s Comprehensive State Plan to Prevent and Reduce Tobacco Use

North Dakota voters passed Initiated Measure #3 on November 4, 2008. The Measure enacted a new law to establish and fund a comprehensive statewide tobacco prevention and control program. The Measure also created a Tobacco Prevention and Control Advisory Committee to develop a plan within 180 days of the initial meeting of the committee. A three member Executive Committee is charged with overseeing the implementation and evaluation of the plan.

The 61^st North Dakota Legislative Assembly appropriated $9.3 million per year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended funding level, for the comprehensive tobacco prevention and control program.

The North Dakota Tobacco Prevention and Control Advisory Committee is pleased to submit Saving Lives – Saving Money: North Dakota’s Comprehensive State Plan to Prevention and Reduce Tobacco Use 2009 – 2014 to you the people of North Dakota for your review and support. You have entrusted the Advisory Committee with the responsibility of designing a plan to improve the health of North Dakotans by reducing tobacco use – the leading cause of premature death and disease in our state.

We pledge to you that we will work with you to implement this comprehensive, evidence-based tobacco prevention and control program based on the CDC Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs October 2007. Using these Best Practices will ensure that together we will reduce tobacco use and the premature death and disease it causes in the most cost effective and efficient manner.

The toll of tobacco in North Dakota is too high.

•  Tobacco use is the leading preventable  cause of  death, disease and disability in North Dakota. 

• Each year 877 North Dakota adults die prematurely from illnesses caused by smoking.

•  Approximately 11,000 North Dakota youth younger than 18 are projected to die prematurely due to smoking.

• Secondhand smoke kills 80 to 140 NorthDakotans each year.

•  North Dakota receives approximately $57 million annually from tobacco taxes, the Master Settlement Agreement and the CDC; however, tobacco use costs North Dakota upwards of $442 million each year: $250 million in direct medical expenditures and $192 million in lost productivity.

This comprehensive State Plan is built on the foundation established in On the path to a Healthier Tomorrow, North Dakota’s   Strategic Plan to Prevent and Reduce Tobacco Use 2008 – 2013 and the work of the North Dakota Department of Health as well as the hundreds of organizations and individuals who have been involved in tobacco prevention and control efforts for more than two decades. Over the next five years, implementation of this State Plan will prevent a greater number of North Dakota youth and young adults from beginning to use tobacco products, decrease the number of tobacco users, and fully protect the public from exposure to secondhand smoke in public places and in their workplaces.  The plan includes four goal areas and identifies objectives and action steps that will lead to achievement of those goals.  A number of objectives are repeated throughout the Plan because they are proven-effective strategies to reach multiple goals. These strategies include increasing the price of tobacco products and implementing comprehensive tobacco-free policies.  Each goal area begins with a number of indicators that will be used to measure progress toward achievement of the goal area.  If state and local policy makers, healthcare providers, schools, colleges, employers and the public fully implement this plan it will significantly prevent and reduce smoking and other tobacco use in North Dakota and produce enormous public health and economic benefits to the state.

Saving Lives-Saving Money full report click on the "view .pdf.