Tobacco Free Florida
In November 2006, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment, Article X, Section 27, that called for establishing a comprehensive tobacco education and use prevention program using a percentage of the state’s tobacco settlement fund. As a result, Tobacco Free Florida (TFF) launched in 2007. TFF is administered through the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Tobacco Free Florida and funded by money derived from the state’s tobacco settlement agreement with the major tobacco companies in 1997. These tobacco lawsuits were intended to punish cigarette makers for decades of fraud and racketeering and to help states pay for the Medicaid and other public health expenses to cover sick smokers. Florida was among three other states – Texas, Mississippi and Minnesota – that settled with the tobacco industry before the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 between the other 46 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease. Changing behaviors related to tobacco is critical in Florida, where each year about 32,300 adults die from smoking. If current smoking rates continue, 270,000 Florida children alive today who are younger than 18 years of age will die prematurely as a result of smoking. Smoking costs the state $8.6 billion in medical costs annually. A mandate of the constitutional amendment is that the TFF program follows the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs. This guide helps states plan and establish evidence-based comprehensive, sustained, and accountable tobacco control programs to prevent and reduce tobacco use.
