(Des Moines, IA) — Public health organizations across the state have launched a new initiative aimed at reducing tobacco-related health problems in Iowa. Dr. Amy Kimball is a pediatrician with Health Trust Physicians Clinic in Winterset and says it starts with how tobacco is targeted towards young people.
Dr. Kimball says it’s not cigarettes that are being advertised, but alternative tobacco products.
The Iowa Health Initiative is calling on the Iowa Legislature to raise the state’s cigarette tax by a dollar fifty per pack to two-dollars and 86 cents with relative tax increases on all other tobacco products. Earlier this month, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds proposed legislation to raise the state’s cigarette tax to 2-01 per pack.
