THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
If a pack-a-day smoker quit smoking in 1985 and invested the $1.70 every day for 10 years in a good mutual fund, he would be worth $17,000 more today.
Every pack-a-day smoker who stops smoking will reduce our nation's health-care cost $2.17 daily. Direct health-care costs from tobacco-related illnesses exceed $50 billion annually.
How many smokers want to quit smoking? Michael Erickson, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports, ``Each year, 34 percent of U.S. smokers try to quit smoking, but only 8 percent succeed.'' Why? Cigarette manufacturers limit the nicotine-addicted smokers' basic right to choose a healthier, more-active and more-productive lifestyle.
Will tobacco companies pay for medical treatment to free the 34 percent of American smokers who try to quit the addiction; for the expensive, long-term medical costs for the Americans who are suffering from tobacco-related illnesses; for the funeral expenses and lost income of the family members who die every year from tobacco?
What can be done to stop this violence?
Legislation is needed to regulate tobacco advertising and marketing campaigns targeted at youth. Needed also is a Health Protection Fund, to be financed by a surtax on profits of tobacco companies, to be used to educate our young Americans about the hazardous consequences to health, the costly addiction to nicotine and the restriction of lifestyle imposed by tobacco.
Our kids deserve a chance to make an informed choice about smoking. Violence by youth will decrease when they see adult voters and political leaders show their respect for the God-given dignity of human life by taking a stand against the violence done by tobacco.
HARRY C. SNYDER
Edenton, N.C., Nov. 29, 1995 by CNB