New Act of Tobacco Programs in Hawaii
Published on May 26, 2010 6:05 AM
Health officials urge lawmakers to add additional anti-smoking programs in Hawaii. Because programs that encourage inhabitants to quit smoking or not starting the smoking habit are working, and lawmakers should fight the lure to take money from tobacco-control programs, officials reported.
They suggested that all the deaths connected to heart disease in Hawaii decreased by approximately 28 percent from 2000 to 2008. Health authorities sustained that such statistics are very good results because heart disease is the main smoking-related illness.
"This big decline among smokers shows us that Hawaii’s has made an important rate of visits of tobacco control people. The fight's not over. We still have 1,200 people die every year from tobacco-related deaths," declared Julian Lipsher, Hawaii state Department of Health Tobacco Prevention & Education program coordinator.
While the anti-tobacco programs results are very favorable, anti-smoking officials feel now is not the time to cut back on proven high-impact policies that are usually funded by an act of tobacco companies, added Don Weisman, spokesman for the American Heart Association in Hawaii.
However, officials also fear that legislators trying to find only negative effects of such programs for to cut such control programs, which are proving effective.
"With the legislative meeting under way, the danger to the new tobacco control programs is real. Tobacco costs extended throughout our region. As it is known tobacco continues to be the leading preventable cause of death in the state," Weisman reported.
Statistics show that Hawaii spends approximately $8.8 million a year on anti-smoking measures. The new state legislation which banned smoking in the workplace, in restaurants and in bars has effects among smokers.
But tobacco industries spend $42 million trading tobacco and smoking products in Hawaii, added Lipsher.
"This last report shows us once again how much we can do by standing together. We need to go further," said Dr. Elizabeth Tam, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine chairwoman.
Unlike Hawaii which has a 15.4 percent smoking rate, Utah has the lowest percentage of adult smokers with a 9.2 percent rate and West Virgina has the highest rate at 26.6 percent.
