Gutted Federal Tobacco Programs Will Cost Lives and Money

Federal Workers Arrived to Termination Notices, Eliminating One of the Highest Impact Federal Health Programs

PROVIDENCE, RI, UNITED STATES, April 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Tobacco use, the leading cause of preventable death in the country, has been largely driven down by the concerted efforts of two different government offices, CDC's Office of Smoking and Health and FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. Today, staff from both offices arrived to get reduction in force notices effective immediately. This sweeping move proves that efforts labelled as increasing government efficiency appear to not consider the value of keeping Americans healthier or the actual health care costs saved by reductions in disease and mortality.

Tobacco control programming has been scientifically evaluated by the World Health Organization to be a "best buy" in all health programming, both for the number of lives saved and federal safety net healthcare costs avoided.

"If the government was truly looking to save money, they would increase funding for tobacco control," says Dr. Scout, the Executive Director of the National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network and a member of FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.

The LGBTQI+ population is one of many that use tobacco and nicotine products at higher rates than the general population. "Groups that experience discrimination often use tobacco and nicotine products at higher rates, in part due to targeting, in part due to the stress of navigating discrimination. Today's gutting of efforts to combat this health problem will disproportionately affect LGBTQI+ people and others who already experience discrimination," adds Dr. Scout. These cuts come on top of sweeping terminations in contracted research at NIH related to LGBTQI+ health and more topics. "The fact that this is occurring at the same time that health research on a group that is almost 10% of the U.S. population is also being eliminated further undermines any pretense of a commitment to the health of Americans," says Dr. Scout. "More people will now get cancer and more will die early."

Dr. NFN Scout
National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network
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