texas

Texas receives failing grades in new tobacco control report

The American Lung Association's “State of Tobacco Control” report gives Texas 'F' grades for tobacco control policies and outlines steps to reduce the burden of tobacco.

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In the 2025 report, Texas received failing grades in five critical areas. NBC 5’s Alanna Quillen has the details.

A new report from the American Lung Association paints a grim picture of Texas' efforts to curb tobacco use.

The annual State of Tobacco Control report evaluates states and the federal government on policies that have been proven to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Texas received failing grades in every key category.

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In the 2025 report, Texas received the following grades in five critical areas:

  • Funding for State Tobacco Prevention Programs – Grade F
  • Strength of Smokefree Workplace Laws – Grade F
  • Level of State Tobacco Taxes – Grade F
  • Coverage and Access to Services to Quit Tobacco – Grade F
  • Ending the Sale of All Flavored Tobacco Products – Grade F

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“Here in Texas, we are seeing tobacco industry lobbyists at the state level working to stop or weaken proven tobacco control policies. The tobacco industry is also introducing new products that appeal to youth like e-cigarettes that mimic smartphones, kid-friendly flavors, and flavored nicotine pouches that are heavily marketed by social media influencers,” said Charlie Gagen, Director of Advocacy at the American Lung Association in Texas. “In 2025, policymakers in Texas must build on last session’s momentum by increasing funding for the Department of State Health Services tobacco prevention and quit smoking programs, improving the state’s surveillance of tobacco retailers, and removing mandatory disciplinary penalties for youth caught with e-cigarettes on school campus.”

Gagen did highlight some good news in the report. Cigarette use is at an all-time low among the population and overall tobacco use among youth is down from a peak in 2018 and 2019.

"But we know that still too many teenagers and young kids are using tobacco products, and we know that e-cigarettes are driving a lot of that use among teens,” Gagen said.

Texas has made some improvements, including raising the legal age for tobacco purchases to 21 and requiring e-cigarette retailers to be permitted. However, Gagen says these efforts aren’t enough.

A major issue, according to Gagen, is the lack of funding for prevention programs.

"Texas is near last in the nation in terms of what we spend on programs to help prevent kids from starting these products and help adults quit these products. We're spending just 3.6% of what the CDC recommends," Gagen said. "And it's particularly frustrating when you look at how much the tobacco industry spends marketing their products in Texas. We're being outspent by about 100 to 1."

Texas lawmakers did approve a $3 million increase for tobacco prevention programs in 2023, but Gagen notes that it’s still far below what’s needed.

"We're even spending less today than we did before e-cigarettes even came on the market," he said.

One of the biggest concerns highlighted in the report is the lack of accountability for tobacco retailers who sell to minors.

"We talk a lot about how liquor stores and bars are very afraid of TABC busting them for selling to minors. That fear doesn't exist for tobacco retailers," Gagen said. "In fact, no tobacco retailer in the state has ever had their license suspended, much less revoked for repeated sales to minors, and that's just because we aren't doing enough compliance checks to catch repeat offenders."

Gagen and other advocates are pushing for annual compliance checks to ensure retailers follow the law.

"We'd really like to see funding for an annual compliance check so that every tobacco retailer knows at some point in the year, they're going to receive maybe it's a minor going in to try to buy, or some sort of compliance check to make sure they're following the law," he said.

Beyond e-cigarettes, another growing concern is the rise of oral nicotine pouches like Zyns, which are being heavily marketed to young people.

"This is the classic playbook by the tobacco industry of creating kind of novel products that don't have the same negative stigmas associated with them and targeting young adults and teenagers relentlessly with them to get them hooked," Gagen said. "Our big concern on products like Zyns is these products have incredibly high amounts of nicotine in them. And based on some of the data we've seen, the average user is consuming the equivalent of up to three packs of nicotine a day from these oral nicotine products."

Despite the troubling findings, Gagen remains hopeful that Texas lawmakers will take action. The state currently runs a hotline that people can call called the Texas Tobacco Quitline. It includes quit coaching, up to eight weeks of nicotine replacement therapy, access to combination nicotine replacement therapy, and a youth digital program for those ages 13-17.

"We're certainly optimistic about the budget surplus in Texas," he said. "The state's Department of Health Services has asked for additional funding really aimed at getting more folks to take advantage of the quit line. Unfortunately, that extra funding, which was only about a million dollars, was not included in either the draft Senate or draft House budgets. So we're going to continue to advocate to lawmakers to include that funding request, if not a significant amount more."

For now, the American Lung Association and its coalition partners, including the American Cancer Society, the Texas Medical Association, and the Texas PTA, continue to push for stronger policies to prevent youth tobacco use and hold retailers accountable.

But as the report makes clear, Texas has a long way to go.

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