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Blumenthal submitted testimony, as he met in Washington, D.C. with other attorneys general to discuss this issue and others at a National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) conference. Last year, more than 13,000 people – in one month – sought assistance to quit smoking through the Quitline smoking cessation program. The Quitline is a successful smoking cessation program combining counseling and nicotine replacement pharmaceutical drugs, but the program exhausted its funding, and full service was discontinued to new applicants less than 30 days after it began. Senate Bill 459, An Act Promoting the Early Detections, Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer, would enable restoration of the Quitline’s full services and other programs. “Just as Connecticut led the court fight against Big Tobacco, we must use the resources we won to fight deadly tobacco addiction, particularly among children,” Blumenthal said. “There is a strong clear need for tobacco cessation and prevention programs. Each year, 4,800 Connecticut children begin smoking on average at 11 years old. Almost one in five Connecticut children smoke and 76,000 of them will die prematurely from a smoking related illness. Despite tobacco’s continued death grip on our state, and Big Tobacco’s unrelenting pursuit of our children, Connecticut ranked dead last in the nation regarding its use of tobacco settlement funding for tobacco education and cessation programs. Our state received an ‘F’ on the American Lung Association’s report card for funding such critical programs. “We have the financial resources – $140 million every year from Big Tobacco – to fund a strong tobacco prevention and cessation program to prevent children from smoking. Annually, Connecticut receives more than $140 million from from the tobacco companies as a result of our settlement of the lawsuit brought by my office. “We led the national litigation, and now must take the lead in saving dollars and lives by using Big Tobacco’s money to combat tobacco addiction. The Quitline has already proved its worth – responding to thousands of smokers in July alone before the money was exhausted. We must restore this historic opportunity to overcome Connecticut’s dead last standing in fighting tobacco, and empower our citizens to quit smoking.” © Copyright by StamfordPlus.com. Some articles and pictures posted on our website, as indicated by their bylines, were submitted as press releases and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of StamfordPlus.com, Stamford Plus magazine, Canaiden LLC or any of its associated entities. Articles may have been edited for brevity and grammar. [an error occurred while processing this directive] CURRENT HEADLINES: [an error occurred while processing this directive] Top of Page
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