History: CAFE Iowa CAN was organized in response to the Supreme Court's decision on May 7, 2003 on the local government's authority to pass laws regulating smoking at the local level. Our goal was to educate the public about effective tobacco prevention methods and prepare them to become better advocates for tobacco control. The believe Iowa must have a comprehensive tobacco control program that includes increasing the cost of tobacco, restricting where people can use tobacco, and fully funding a tobacco prevention program to protect the health of all Iowans. Two of these three goals have now been achieved.

Mission: To reduce tobacco-related death and disease.

Vision: To increase the cost of tobacco products, increase smokefree environments, and ensure a fully-funded comprehensive tobacco prevention program in Iowa.

• In 2007, the Iowa legislature passed a $1.00 tobacco tax and an increased spending on tobacco control.

• In 2008, the Iowa legislature passed a strong smokefree law that protects 99.8 percent of Iowa workers, leaving only the casino workers at risk. This was a compromise that was necessary to get the bill passed.

During the current economic recession, we don’t expect the Iowa legislature to increase funding for tobacco prevention. We are advocating for level funding or at least a cut no greater than what other programs receive. We will remind legislators that Iowa this year will collect $296 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 3.7 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs.

Iowa currently spends $11.1 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 30.3 percent of the $36.7 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Last year, Iowa ranked 21st, spending $11.2 million on tobacco prevention.