A new report released by the American Cancer Society and other public health organizations ranked Iowa 29th in the country when it comes to spending money on anti-tobacco programs.

Iowa spends 26.4 percent of the recommended amount of money for tobacco prevention each year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the state spends $19.35 million on tobacco prevention annually, but Iowa spends only $5.1 million a year.

“$5.1 million is better than nothing,” said Bonnie Mapes, division director of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control in Iowa. “We are midway in the states.”

Mapes said Iowa spends around the national average on tobacco prevention, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough.

“Iowa has invested a small amount in protecting its kids from tobacco, but it is falling far short of the minimum amount recommended by the experts at the CDC,” said William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

There is a significant difference between the amount of money spent on tobacco prevention and tobacco marketing, advocates of tobacco prevention said.

“The gap illustrates exactly what we are up against,” said Sandra Quilty, Iowa government relations liaison for the American Cancer Society. “Big Tobacco spends big money. Tobacco companies spend more in a single day in Iowa on marketing than the state spends in an entire year on prevention. Our children, by comparison, are helpless.”

According to the report, Iowa currently has enough money to increase prevention program funding. Iowa will collect $149.2 million from the state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes this year, but return 3.4 percent of this money for tobacco prevention. According to another report called “A Broken Promise to Our Children” — which was released by the American Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association — $246 billion will be collected nationwide from the multistate tobacco settlement during the next 25 years. This report also noted most states have not spent a significant portion of this money on prevention programs, even though it was part of the agreement.

The number of smokers in Iowa is dropping, Mapes said. The percent of smokers dropped from 23 percent in 2002 to 21.7 percent in 2003, she said.

“Although this doesn’t look like a huge drop, if you can get a 1 percent drop, that is a huge savings for the state,” she said.

Tobacco prevention programs work to reduce smoking, according to the Federal Trade Commission. After launching anti-smoking campaigns in Maine, the commission found the number of students who smoked in high school and middle school was cut in half.

According to the FTC, tobacco prevention programs were also successful in Mississippi, California and Massachusetts.

In Iowa, 34 percent of students in high school use tobacco, and a total of 4,600 Iowans die each year because of tobacco use.

The health care costs in the state each year directly related to smoking have also increased to $794 million.

“Iowa should increase its cigarette tax and invest more in tobacco prevention because the tobacco companies are spending record amounts to market their deadly and addictive products, often in ways that appeal to kids,” Corr said.

“Tobacco prevention is a smart investment that protects kids, saves lives and saves money for taxpayers by reducing tobacco-related health care costs.”