MTCP, Abt Associates Inc. has reviewed data on smoking prevalence, quit attempts, smoking cessation, exposure to ETS, incidents of tobacco sales to minors, and changes in attitudes regarding tobacco use and tobacco-control policy (Hamilton et al. 2002). Frequent budget cuts, however, have impacted the regularity of the MTCP’s surveillance efforts, restricting the extent and consistency of program evaluation (Hamilton et al. 2002).

The results of the evaluations and surveys mentioned above, along with the findings from a number of peer-reviewed studies, indicate that California and Massachusetts have made progress in their tobacco control efforts; this progress is most notable when the respective programs have been well-funded and fully-implemented. On the basis of data from the CDC’s Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System, Figure 5-1 illustrates the successes that both states have had in reducing tobacco use in comparison with the rest of the country. Figure 5-1 shows that a 23.2 percent reduction in the prevalence of current smoking in California took place between 1990 (the first full year of the state’s tobacco control program) and 2005, whereas the reduction in the U.S. median during the same period was

FIGURE 5-1 Percent reduction in current adult smokers in California and Massachusetts from the first year of their tobacco control programs (1990 and 1994, respectively) to 2005 (the year for which the most current data are available) compared with the percent reduction in the U.S. median for the same two time periods, based on data from the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System.

SOURCE: (CDC 2006a).