A new national report commended Maine for its strong anti-smoking policies but gave the state an “F” for failing to reduce smoking rates among women and girls.

The report looked at 11 smoking benchmarks to judge how well states were meeting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2010 no-smoking goals. Of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, two were judged nearly satisfactory, 10 were unsatisfactory and 39 were deemed failing.

The report said Maine had the most anti-smoking policies of any state but had a high number of adults who smoked, a high percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy, high lung cancer rates and a high number of deaths from pulmonary disease.

Maine received a failing grade and ranked 33rd overall.

“My first reaction was, ‘Aaahhh!'” said Megan Hannan, government relations director for the American Cancer Society’s New England division.

The report, “Women and Smoking: A National and State Report Card,” was released Tuesday by the National Women’s Law Center in Washington D.C. and the Oregon Health and Science University.

Hannan and other health officials immediately took issue with some of the data used in the report, pointing out that some statistics were six years old.

Using 1998-99 figures, for example, the report said 63 percent of Maine women received smoking cessation advice from their doctors. But Barbara Leonard, community health director for the Maine Bureau of Health, said 2002 figures showed 83 percent received advice.

“It is outdated,” she said.

Still, Leonard and other health officials said the report accurately showed that Maine needed to do more to stop women from smoking.

“The fact is that we are not doing as good a job for women and girls as we should be,” Hannan said.

To meet national goals, the report showed that Maine needs to, among other things, reduce the number of adults who smoke from 21 percent to 12 percent. It needs to reduce the percentage of woman who smoke during pregnancy from 18 percent to 1 percent. And it needs to increase the number of adults who are trying to quit smoking from 51.5 percent to 75 percent.

The report also said that Maine needs higher cigarette taxes and a law requiring private health insurance companies to cover smoking cessation programs.

Ed Miller, head of the American Lung Association of Maine, called the report “toughly graded” but agreed with its points.

He said Maine needs to look at insurance coverage for smoking programs and consider more smoking cessation programs in more settings.

But the state is currently working to reduce smoking rates among women and girls with media campaigns, education, a stop-smoking helpline and statewide smoking policies. He believes that will help.

“It’s really one step at a time,” he said. “And we’re taking the right steps right now.”

ltice@sunjournal.com