As per a Wednesday report released by a coalition of public health groups, there has been a more than 15 percent reduction in funding by the US states for the tobacco prevention programs this year; thereby indicating that the funding for these programs has fallen to its lowest-ever below the federally-recommended levels.

The report, titled “A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 11 Years Later,” said that the past year saw the states cut the funding for tobacco prevention by $103.4 million or 15.4 percent.

Noting that the states are receiving record amounts of funds from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, the report revealed that 34 states and the District of Columbia slashed their funding for tobacco prevention programs this year, with New York topping the charts with a $25.2 million, or 31 percent, trimming.

The disquieting findings disclosed in the report – released by American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and other groups – appear even grimmer given the fact that the annual smoking-related health care costs countrywide stand at a whopping $95.9 billion.

Commenting on the states’ slashed tobacco prevention funding, Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in the report: “Those states that make short-sighted decisions to cut tobacco prevention will pay a steep price in lives and dollars.”