Nearly 200 American Cancer Society volunteers and staff spent Wednesday at the Statehouse urging legislators to support a proposed 93-cent tobacco tax increase.

The second annual "Day at the Capital" was an effort to protect the children of South Carolina, said Nancy Cheney, director of Government Relations for the South Atlantic Division of the ACS.

"Seventy-four percent of South Carolinians do not smoke," she said. "Yet, everybody bears the burden of smoke-related health care costs. We need this tax to protect our kids, especially, as one in three South Carolina teenagers smokes."

The ACS said studies demonstrate a 7 percent decrease in young smokers for every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes. Passing the tax will provide a triple win, Cheney explained, by improving the lives of children, the state of health care and the economy at large.

Costs for treating South Carolinians with tobacco-related disease amounted to $854 million last year. The state Medicaid program paid $307 million of that amount, while every South Carolina household paid $485.

Currently, the state's cigarette tax is 7 cents, an amount that's held since 1977.

"Think about inflation since that time and it's easy to see that a 93 cent increase is not unreasonable," Cheney said.

According to the ACS, more than 17,000 children experimented with tobacco last year, while about 4,300 South Carolinians succumbed to tobacco-related diseases.

On Tuesday, a study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association cited tobacco use as the major cause of preventable death in the nation, with poor diet and exercise habits looming behind.

"We can do better. We should do better," ACS volunteer and tobacco tax advocate Dr. Mark O'Rourke said in a statement issued this week. "The pressing need for an increase in the cigarette tax is not 'tax and spend.' It is not to increase government spending or throw good money after bad. South Carolina needs to raise the price of cigarettes in order to save its children from smoking. By passing the 93 cents tax increase this year, lawmakers would be doing the right thing for the right reason."

The ACS is calling on concerned citizens to voice their support for the tax increase to legislators.

"It is an election year, after all, and some feel that this is the most opportune time for the tax to be raised," Cheney said.

For more information, call the ACS at (800) ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org on the Internet.