Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Tristate smoking, deaths top averages
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Meghan Schatzel, 18, of Loveland says tougher tobacco rules won't stop teens.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
| ZOOM |
|
Kentucky pays a high price for maintaining its tobacco culture, according to two federal health reports issued Tuesday.
The Commonwealth has the nation's highest adult and high school smoking rates plus the nation's second-highest death rate from smoking-related illnesses.
Kentucky, which ranks No. 2 in the nation in tobacco farming, also ranks among the least aggressive states in terms of tobacco control laws, policies and taxes.
The picture isn't much brighter in Ohio and Indiana, where smoking rates and death rates continue to exceed national averages and tobacco control efforts lag well behind the most aggressive states.
The latest numbers, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), come from two reports released Tuesday during a national tobacco control conference in Florida.
The main message behind both reports: Aggressive tobacco control efforts produce results.
“We've found a clear return on investment,” said Terry Pechacek, associate director for science at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.
“The more resources spent on tobacco control, the larger the return in terms of reductions in smoking rates and the associated health costs from smoking.”
The state-by-state reports allow readers to compare Kentucky to success stories, such as California and Massachusetts, where aggressive tobacco control programs have reduced adult smoking rates and blunted a surge in smoking popularity among teen-agers.
The differences among the states can be striking.
• The people who smoke in Kentucky smoke a lot. Every year, Kentucky residents buy nearly 187 packs of cigarettes per capita compared to 54 packs per capita in California. The U.S. average is 87 packs per capita.
• Compared to Utah, which boasts the lowest U.S. smoking rates, twice as many Kentucky adults and nearly three times as many teens smoke. Twice as many die from smoking-related illness.
• In Massachusetts, money from a 76-cent-per-pack excise tax on cigarettes was used to fund anti-smoking programs that helped cut smoking rates 20 percent between 1992 and 1996. Kentucky has a 3-cent-per-pack excise tax, the second-lowest in the nation.
In Covington, comments from smokers gathered Tuesday outside the IRS Service Center illustrated the battle public health officials face in changing smoking trends.
Teen-agers won't be fazed by tougher rules on smoking tobacco any more than they are by laws against smoking marijuana, said Meghan Schatzel, an 18-year-old resident of Loveland who works at her father's deli in Covington.
Actually, Ms. Schatzel has been trying to quit smoking for about three weeks, but an Enquirer photographer caught her lighting up on “a really stressful day.”
“(Teens) know what they're doing. You'd have to be completely blind not to know it's bad for you. It's a personal thing,” Ms. Schatzel said. “If you can't do something, you want it even more.”
Despite a doctor's warnings, Vickie Frazier of Covington said smoking is her right. She said the anti-smoking rules in her workplace are discriminatory.
“It helps with the stress of the job,” she said. “I go take that coffee break, have that cigarette, and I feel better.”
The CDC report states that 400,000 people per year die from smoking-related lung cancer and other diseases and $53 billion a year is spent on medical costs.
Years from now, the CDC predicts, more than 5.3 million U.S. teen smokers (87,000 in Kentucky, 141,000 in Indiana and 919,000 in Ohio) will end up dying early from failing to kick their habits.
Emile Hart, a Cincinnati resident who works in Covington, said she does not believe the health warnings about cigarette smoking.
“They haven't convinced me that smoking will kill you anyhow,” she said. “There are too many people dying of cancer who never smoked a day in their life.”
The CDC reports go beyond putting numbers on smoking trends that many health experts, policy-makers and Tri state residents have known about for years. They also say most states should spend at least a third of the money they get from a multibillion-dollar settlement with the tobacco industry on tobacco control programs.
• Kentucky should spend between $25 million and $70 million per year, the report said. The state spends about $425,000 a year, nearly all from federal grant programs.
• Ohio should spend between $62 million and $173 million a year. Ohio gets about $600,000 a year now in federal grants and devotes few state funds to tobacco control.
• Indiana should spend $35 million to $96 million. It gets about $1.2 million a year in federal grants now.
Amy Barkley, project manager for the tobacco-control coalition Kentucky Action, said Kentucky has a long tradition of not funding tobacco control.
“It's deplorable that we have the highest youth-smoking rate, but understandable given our culture,” Ms. Barkley said.
In Kentucky, where burley tobacco is grown on 60,000 mostly family farms in 119 of the state's 120 counties, lawmakers took a cautious view of the CDC report.
Three years ago, the Kentucky General Assembly made it illegal for merchants to sell and teens to buy tobacco products. But in 1998 lawmakers killed a tougher bill that would have made it illegal for minors to not only buy but possess tobacco products.
Like many states, many employers and restaurants in Kentucky have policies restricting smoking. But unlike 31 states with restaurant laws and 21 with workplace laws, Kentucky has no statewide smoking restrictions.
Kentucky is also one of only eight states that still allow lighting up in state buildings.
State Rep. Tom Kerr, a Taylor Mill Democrat and 15-year veteran of the state legislature, said he doubts the CDC report will trigger any new legislation beyond limiting underage access to tobacco.
“I wouldn't be surprised to see some proposals to take stronger measures to prevent tobacco from getting in the hands of minors,” Mr. Kerr said. “But with this being a tobacco state, it's awfully difficult to come up with the support needed to take that kind of action.”
State Rep. Joe Fischer, a Republican from Fort Thomas, said tobacco control is more a responsibility of parents than a job for government.
“The question becomes for me is whether the state government should do anything,” Mr. Fischer said. “Our state is a large producer and obvious consumer of tobacco, and I think it would be difficult for me to imagine any new taxes or regulations imposed on tobacco products.”
Danny McKinney, CEO of the Kentucky Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative, said farmers are willing to join the fight against youth smoking but will not stand for state money being used to combat adult smoking.
“We draw the line when it comes time to spend money to limit adult choice,” Mr. McKinney said.
Patrick Crowley and Anne Michaud and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tristate smoking, deaths top averages
Hate group targets Anderson
Hundreds of vets' graves overgrown
Kings Island closes second ride
Road work an obstacle to Riverfest
Votruba decries NKU's funding
Judge halts voucher program
Most Americans oppose full school vouchers
What's Your Opinion: Questions of fairness
Chief: Fire response was earlier
Ex-guard beats felony rap involving girl
GET TO IT
Jurisdiction argued in Justin hearing
Ross teens start school on sad note
Storms knock down trees, power lines
Birth control options
Contraceptive for males is still in works
Most common contraceptive methods
Buddhist monks perform for world peace
If you go: 'Mystical Music and Dance of Tibet'
McKechnie working on new show at Playhouse
'Blue's Clues' host very much alive
Agencies doing own pot testing
Bell fighting area-code change
Boone Co. citizens get a say in police study
Deputy city manager no longer 'interim'
Escapee from county jail to do more time
Forest Park paper ends run
Gravelrama ready to roll
Judge to say whether historic building may be torn down
Kenton proposal: Regulate sex-oriented businesses
Ky. GOP gains ground
Marchers protest Ohio death penalty
Mason to double size of park
Mental health clients find pals in program
Middletown mall burden, experts say
Mostly white jury chosen for Miami U. trial
Officer hurt in scrape with teen
Schools opt to build new rather than renovate old
Sewer fight shifts to site test
Six hurt in blast near Germantown
TRISTATE DIGEST
Union Twp. to pay for aerial map
Video seller pleads no contest
Video store is investigated
Warren to fight Deerfield over water, sewer plan
