Debi Austin appeared in the ad in 1996. In a raspy voice, she described starting smoking at age 13. Then declaring, “They say nicotine isn’t addictive,” she took a drag from her cigarette through a stoma, a hole in her throat which permitted her to breathe. “How can they say that?” she concluded.

For years, she worked to keep kids from smoking. She died last week after fighting various cancers for more than 20 years.

From a release from the California Department of Public Health:

“We are saddened by Debi’s death. She exemplified the real toll tobacco takes on a person’s body,” said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman. “Debi was a pioneer in the fight against tobacco and showed tremendous courage by sharing her story to educate Californians on the dangers of smoking. She was an inspiration for Californians to quit smoking and also influenced countless others not to start. We trust she will continue to touch those that hear her story, particularly teens and young adults. She will be greatly missed.”

Tobacco Free California says this about Austin on its website (where you can also watch a video about her):

Debi Austin started smoking at the age of 13. She continued to smoke through a stoma in her throat even after being diagnosed with cancer and having her larynx removed at the age of 42. But, Debi fought back. She starred in an iconic television ad for the California Tobacco Control Program, quit smoking and has made anti-tobacco education not only her mission in life, but her passion.

(Raul Lieberwirth/Flickr)

Tobacco prevention advocates are calling on California to spend more on anti-smoking programs — especially since the state already has the money for it.

A new report published Thursday titled Broken Promises to Our Children looked nationwide at how states are spending the money from the 1998 master settlement agreement with cigarette companies and from states’ tobacco taxes.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which published the analysis, says states spend only a “minuscule portion” or tobacco revenue on cessation and prevention programs. The group estimates California will get $1.6 billion this year in tobacco revenue, but will spend just $62 million on smoking prevention and cessation efforts. Nationwide, states spend just two percent of their total tobacco revenue on prevention and cessation.

“California and other states have shown that these tobacco prevention/cessation programs more than pay for themselves,” said Danny McGoldrick, vice-president for research with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “When we cut them and reverse our progress in reducing smoking, we’re actually costing the state money, because we’re going to have more costs related to treating tobacco-caused disease.” His group estimates health care costs to treat tobacco-caused diseases total $9 billion in California.

In its best practices recommendations, the Centers for Disease Control says that California should spend about $440 million on cessation and prevention. By contrast, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates tobacco companies spend more than $500 million in marketing in the state.

“The decision makers are the people sitting in the legislature and the governor,” McGoldrick said. “They have to decide that 36,000 people dying every year in California from tobacco-caused disease and losing 12-14 years off their lives … are worth doing more about than California has already done and is currently doing. But in order to do that, they need to hear from us — the citizens and tobacco control advocates have to let them know this is important to us.”

Sixteen percent of Californians smoked in 2011, according to the Gallup Healthways Well Being Index, the second lowest rate in the U.S. behind Utah, at 13 percent.