South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative

About

The State of South Carolina has enacted a plan designed to achieve the general goal of reducing the toll of tobacco use in the state. That toll can be defined as both the health and financial effects that all South Carolinians pay when some of it's citizens choose to use tobacco products.

The goals are divided into five specific areas:

1. Prevent individuals from starting to smoke, or use other tobacco related products
2. Eliminate citizens' exposure to second hand smoke
3. Helping those currently using tobacco products to quit
4. Prevent tobacco-related disparities amongst the state's various population groups.
5. Strengthen the state's infastructure to accomplish these goals.

Read a complete copy of the S. C. state plan by following the link below.

Addressing the Toll of Tobacco: A Five Year State Plan for S.C. (document)

If all states were to fund their tobacco control programs at the recommended levels of investment, in 5 years, there would be 5 million fewer smokers nationwide, and hundreds of thousands of premature tobacco-related deaths would be prevented each year. Investments of longer duration will have even greater effects. Best Practices-2007 identifies what works, including the investment needed to end the tobacco use epidemic and prevent the staggering toll that tobacco takes on our families and communities. Failing to fully invest means more people will become addicted, suffer illness, and die prematurely.

Captain Matthew T. McKenna, MD, MPH
Director, Office on Smoking and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention