Ed. note: Coughlan is the TSET Healthy Living Program Wellness Coordinator at the Kingfisher County Health Department.]

It is so gratifying whenever we, the Oklahoma voters, get it right – especially when it saves thousands of lives and well over one billion dollars.

We did just that in 2000 when Oklahoma voters approved a ballot measure that established the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET).

Studies show that TSET funding has since contributed to saving at least 42,000 lives and more than $1.2 billion in direct medical costs here in Oklahoma.

Those figures represent many loved ones who are still with us and a lot of hard-earned money that Oklahoma families could instead spend elsewhere.

And while tobacco use remains higher in Oklahoma than most other states, TSET-funded programs are helping our tobacco use rate drop faster than in comparable states.

Those programs include the TSET Healthy Living Program, which invested slightly more than $1 million here in Kingfisher and Blaine counties during a five-year grant cycle.

Program staff collaborated with city, school and business leaders and community organizations to adopt tobacco-free and wellness policies to boost our health over the long run.

That community-based work to improve long-term health and well-being continues in Kingfisher and Blaine counties, thanks to a new TSET Healthy Living Program five-year cycle that started on July 1.

TSET has also invested locally through Healthy Schools Incentive Grants awarded to schools in Okeene, Hydro-Eakly, Watonga, Dover, Lomega and Okarche.

The combined $34,000 helped the schools pay for equipment to boost nutrition, water intake and physical activity for our students.

In addition, TSET awarded a Healthy Communities Incentive Grant of $22,000 to the Town of Okeene, which benefitted residents by paying for the expansion of sidewalks.

TSET also supports lifesaving research at the Stephenson Cancer Center, the TSET Health Promotion Research Center and the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research.

TSET’s funding brings leading scientists to Oklahoma and leverages additional research funds.

The TSET Phase I Clinical Trial Program serves patients from all over our state and ensures they can receive cutting-edge care close to home.

The clinical trial program helped Stephenson earn the rare distinction of becoming a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center.

TSET does not receive one penny of taxpayer money to fund any of these programs.

Major tobacco companies make annual payments – which resulted from a master settlement agreement with 46 states in 1998 – to Oklahoma’s tobacco settlement endowment that the voters approved in 2000.

TSET only spends the earnings from the endowment, ensuring that those dollars will benefit Oklahomans for generations to come.

Reducing the share of money that the endowment receives will reduce the im-pact that TSET makes locally and throughout the state.

Though we have reason to be optimistic, there is still much work to be done.

For example, Kingfisher County’s current smoking prevalence is 18.4%, representing about one out of every six adults. Obesity prevalence is 30.8%, representing about one out of every three adults.

These behaviors contribute to 66% of the deaths in the county.

There is no question that there is still a need for the TSET Healthy Living Program.