A study in the state of California has linked a dramatic drop in rates of lung and bronchial cancers to the state’s aggressive anti-smoking campaign. The study is the first to confirm that tough anti-tobacco action yields gains in the reduction of tobacco use and disease, say experts at the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

California’s lung cancer rates dropped 14 percent as opposed to a 2.7 percent drop nationwide in the period 1988 to 1997. Unlike other states, California residents voted in 1989 to add an extra 25 cents per pack of cigarettes in order to fund a smoking prevention program, and two years ago, voted to add another 50 cents per pack.

Thomas Neslund, an associate in the health department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide, says that these findings show that state anti-tobacco programs are vital in the fight against the social devastation of tobacco addiction. “It is a call to other states to step up their education programs and to increase legislative pressure on the tobacco industry,” he says.

The Adventist Church has been a strong advocate of a tobacco-free lifestyle since the mid-1800s, pioneering a stop-smoking program that has become the prototype of many programs around the world.