RICHMOND — The tobacco settlement anti-smoking program in Virginia could become a launching point for combating childhood obesity if a state senator who is also a Norfolk pediatrician can convince the General Assembly his idea is good.
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Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, said his patients include too many overweight youngsters, and he said the prevention key involves getting a message to them early.
The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation apparently has found ways to communicate its message to kids through “a tremendous program,” Northam told a Senate committee on Thursday.
He cited a Virginia Commonwealth University survey that indicated the foundation succeeded in reducing smoking in high school students from 28 percent in 2001 to 15 percent six years later.
Northam’s bill, SB 1112, would change the name of the Tobacco Settlement Foundation to the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth.
The bill also says the foundation’s “moneys may also be used for the purpose of reducing childhood obesity, including but not limited to educational and awareness programs.”
The bill further says the foundation could receive public grants and private funding to reduce childhood obesity. Northam didn’t cite any potential sources of such funding, although pharmaceutical makers and insurance companies sometimes support health programs.
He also told the committee his bill “would not take any emphasis away from smoking.”
Northam’s bill wouldn’t directly affect the Virginia Tobacco Commission’s economic-incentive programs in Southside and Southwest Virginia counties.
State law allocates Virginia’s share of the Tobacco Master Settlement funds into three categories.
Half of the funds go to the Tobacco Commission to assist tobacco growers and to revitalize tobacco-dependent communities. The counties of Appomattox, Campbell and Bedford have received about $10 million of those funds in the past eight years, and Central Virginia Community College received more than $3 million.
Forty percent of the settlement funds go into the state’s general fund to pay for education, health care and other statewide programs.
The remaining 10 percent goes to the Tobacco Settlement Fund, out of which Northam seeks to launch the anti-obesity program. The settlement fund’s budget is about $13 million per year.
Northam’s bill was approved 15-0 Thursday by the Senate Education and Health committee, which asked him only a few questions. None of the questions was specific about money.
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