Va.‘s tobacco-control efforts panned
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Published: January 13, 2009
Updated: January 13, 2009
Virginia gets failing grades in policies to prevent tobacco-related diseases, according to one public health group that is pushing for an indoor smoking ban and higher cigarette taxes in the upcoming General Assembly session.
In its annual report card on state tobacco-control programs, the American Lung Association gave Virginia failing grades on tobacco prevention spending, smoke-free air policies, cigarette taxes and support for smoking-cessation programs.
Six other states -- Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia -- received failing grades from the association in all those categories.
"It is a wake-up call to Virginia that we need to save health care dollars and improve the health of our citizens," said David DeBiasi, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Virginia. "Tobacco-related disease is the number one preventable cause of death. It is a huge contributor to the health care mess that we are in."
The group gave Virginia failing grades because the state's spending on tobacco control -- about $13.5 million in fiscal 2009 -- is about 13 percent of the $103 million minimum the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends to prevent children from using tobacco.
The lung association also said Virginia's 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax, the fourth-lowest in the nation, should be closer to the national average of $1.19 per pack.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is proposing doubling the state's cigarette tax from 30 cents to 60 cents per pack, and he is proposing legislation to ban smoking in all indoor areas of restaurants. Kaine's proposals have drawn criticism from the tobacco industry and business groups, which argue the tax increase unfairly targets one industry and the smoking ban would interfere with private business decisions.
Democrats in Congress also reportedly hope to pass legislation that would increase the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 a pack to fund a children's health-insurance program.
The lung association and a coalition of other health groups are backing Kaine's proposals but are lobbying lawmakers to increase the cigarette tax to $1.20 per pack and ban smoking in most indoor public areas.
"Wherever there is an employee, we would like to see a smoke-free environment," said Melina Davis-Martin, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association of the Atlantic Coast. "Any employee should have a right to clean air."
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or
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Smokers should not be falsely accused of harming their children, either! Since the anti-smoking movement began, the death rates from asthma have more than doubled.
The EPA’s Sorry Status Report on Children and Asthma
“America’s Children and the Environment. Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses,“ Second Edition, US EPA, Feb. 2003. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman boasts that “This report marks the progress we have made as a nation to reduce environmental risks faced by childen,“ including “Reducing emissions of diesel pollutants from trucks and buses, which will help prevent hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks in children each year” and “Implementing the Smoke-Free Home Pledge campaign, designed to protect millions of children from the risks of tobacco smoke at home.“ But you have to go all the way down to pdf page 73 to learn that “Between 1980 and 1995, the percentage of children with asthma doubled, from 3.6 percent in 1980 to 7.5 percent in 1995.“ The graph on pdf page 65 boasts of declines in cotinine levels during this same period.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eermfile.nsf/vwAN/EE-0438A-01.pdf/$file/EE-0438A-01.pdf
So stop defaming smokers with those vicious anti-smoker lies.
The anti-smokers are guilty of flagrant scientific fraud for ignoring more than 50 studies, which show that human papillomaviruses cause over ten times more lung cancers than they pretend are caused by secondhand smoke. Passive smokers are more likely to have been exposed to this virus, so the anti-smokers’ studies, because they are all based on nothing but lifestyle questionnaires, have been cynically DESIGNED to falsely blame passive smoking for all those extra lung cancers that are really caused by HPV.
http://www.smokershistory.com/hpvlungc.htm
The anti-smokers have committed the same type of fraud with every disease they blame on smoking and passive smoking, as well as ignoring other types of evidence that proves they are lying, such as the fact that the death rates from asthma have more than doubled since their movement began.
ac, I think you missed the point. This is about taxation.
As for public smoking, that is open for another debate.
As for reading labels on food products…well that doesn’t seemed to have worked! Could it be that our schools haven’t taught our children how to read?
I don’t smoke, and think it’s ignorant to say that cancer is absolutely caused by smoking. My grandfather died of lung cancer in 1964 and he was a smoker. He also was a soldier in WWI, an auto mechanic in the 30’s, and worked for a chemical company until just before his death at 64 years old. My wife’s grandfather smoked 3 packs/day for about 60 years and died at 90 of “natural causes”. His 1st wife didn’t smoke, and died of cancer in her early 50’s. His 2nd, a smoker, lived to be 95. If smoking is guaranteed to cause cancer, there should be no smokers alive over about 55 or 60 years old. When it’s finally banned, I wonder what they’ll blame cancer on? Non smokers get cancer too, and it’s foolish to not find out what causes it within us, instead of just blaming one thing.
It’s humorous that people still compare banning smoking in public places to obesity and alcohol, amongst other things.
A person’s obesity isn’t floating around in the air for me to breath, and neither is the alcoholic beverages people consume. Hey, if you want to weight 400 pounds and be an alcoholic, more power to you! However, once you start puffing smoke in my face in a public area and cause my allergies to act up or cause me to get lung cancer or any other host of ailments caused by smoking, then that’s where government comes into play - protecting its citizens.
There are already penalties in place for drinking/driving and public drunkenness.
There are also labels on food products that tell us the fat content, which is all we need regarding obesity.
I think they should put additional taxes on alcohol!!! It destroys so many families, leads to health problems, results in people being a danger to themselves and others. Why haven’t they done that? Because most of the political big wigs are drinkers, that’s why!
,,now,now,,what do you expect when this glorious state takes all our tobaco suit money from federal gov,,puts it into the general fund,,((2 billion $$))(and still goes broke),,spends it all on everyone,everybody ,,except of course us smokers,,of whom the suit was done on our behalf,,((for excessive nicotine manipulation in the 70,s))so as to build treatment centers and pay for our patches,gum,,whatever to help us quit,,,thanks a lot virginia,,and our elected reprs..!!so quit saying you r raisin cig taxes,to pay for added health cost,,,WHEREZZ MY SUIT MONEY,,a million dollar check would be nice !!..p/s dont ever sue on my be-half again !!
Tiamet: Don’t give ‘em any ideas. If they realize obesity is a problem, then higher taxes on food cannot be far behind. Maybe they’ll make the state income tax progressive based on one’s weight. I’m a former smoker (3 packs/day), but tax policy didn’t make me quit. I have to wonder why liberals have the reputation for promoting personal liberty and choice (abortion), but are at the front of the line when it comes to imposing limits on behavior they don’t like. Is there a liberal foundation out there studying the effects of death on the unborn?
The lunacy of taxing out of existence a product that you expect to provide funding for your programs is mind boggling!
Tax tobacco, use goes away, funding is gone….yeah that makes good sense!
Someday the IQ of these people will reach room temperature.
Obesity, not tobacco a major health problem in Virginia, yet not one group has addressed that issue.
When one reads the proposals by these “do gooder” groups you get the idea that they really don’t have a clue.
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