The state's Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust board has agreed to put nearly one-third of its $13.3 million budget into media campaigns intended to help people stop, or never start, smoking.
Source: AP
The
state's Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust board has agreed to put
nearly one-third of its $13.3 million budget into media campaigns
intended to help people stop, or never start, smoking.
The
board, meeting in Tulsa, voted to spend about $3 million on marketing,
including promoting the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline, a free telephone
service that officials said has helped more than 12,000 Oklahomans kick
their tobacco habit in the past four years.
A total of $9.7
million will be used for various community programs, with about $4
million budgeted to the telephone helpline.
"We plan to start a
public education campaign in January," said Tracy Strader, executive
director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund.
"Now it's time to come on with the marketing campaign," she said.
About $580,000 is set aside for operating expenses.
The trust fund's board receives about $1.25 million from the state
Health Department and the remainder comes from interest from the
tobacco settlement endowment.
The endowment was established
after the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement in which big tobacco
companies give money back to states to help pay expenses associated
with smoking.
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