REPORT: Tennessee not using tobacco settlement money to prevent smoking

Advocacy groups report in a study Wednesday that Tennessee is not using money from a tobacco lawsuit settlement for measures to prevent smoking.

Tennessee, one of the nation's top-producing tobacco states, this year will collect more than $265 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes but will spend none of it on tobacco prevention.

The study was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

Andrea Turner, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health, said Tennessee and several other states have needed tobacco revenues in recent years to cover budget deficits, but the department wants to spend more on tobacco prevention programs next year.