By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Several southwest Ohio agencies say they are worried that the $1.4 million they received this fall in state grants to prevent smoking may be the last.

The money is a fraction of Ohio's $10 billion share of a national class-action lawsuit settlement with the tobacco industry.

The agencies say the funds have started to raise awareness among teens in the anti-smoking campaign. Whether the campaign has changed teen smoking habits in Ohio remains to be seen.

But anti-smoking agencies fear they will get far less funding in the next two years - and perhaps nothing - because state lawmakers face a huge budget deficit.

"We are at a crossroads," said Tracey Carson, a regional policy coordinator for Tobacco-Free Ohio. "Any disruption of services will cost Ohioans in lives and money."

Rep. Greg Jolivette, R-Hamilton, chairman of the House health and family services committee, said the state faces a $3 billion to $4 billion shortfall in the 2003-04 budget. That's a bigger deficit than in the previous budget, which required extensive borrowing from the tobacco settlement funds to balance.

"There will be pressure to use the whole settlement fund for other things. We need to make sure we don't do that," Mr. Jolivette said.

Two young volunteers who have been involved with the campaign's teen advisory panel said Monday they think the anti-smoking efforts are starting to make a difference.

"When I got involved in March, no one had ever heard of it," said Shawn Worley, a 19-year-old student at Scarlet Oaks. "But I've seen people wearing the T-shirts. It's not up to its full maximum, but kids at my school know what it is now."

At Mason High School, said 15-year-old student Samantha Webb, "Some people are smoking before they even get out of the parking lot. But all the `stand' T-shirts and key chains let people know it's OK not to smoke. It doesn't mean you're a dork or anything if you don't smoke."

In Ohio, about 20,000 residents a year die from smoking-related lung cancer, heart disease and other health problems. An estimated 27.6 percent of Ohio adults smoke, the third-highest rate in the nation, according to the Ohio Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Ohio, like other states, has been criticized by the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others for using much of the tobacco settlement funds for priorities that have nothing to do with smoking.

In Ohio, the biggest use of tobacco money has been to increase spending for K-12 education in response to an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the existing funding system was unconstitutional.

In October, Ohio's Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation awarded $7 million in anti-smoking grants to 28 agencies. Another $2 million is expected to be distributed next year.

"We know that the counter-marketing campaign is working," said Tim Ingram, Hamilton County health commissioner and a member of the tobacco control foundation. "But we still have a lot of work to do. I trust that the legislature sees the wisdom of the foundation."

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com