EDITORIAL
Tobacco funds needn't all go to smoke battle

A national study underwritten by a coalition of health organizations is dismayed that Hawai'i is spending so much tobacco settlement money on the new medical school in Kaka'ako. The report, which looked at spending by all the states, said Hawai'i was one of the most disappointing because 28 percent of the fund money is going to the medical school.

That cut into the amount available for the state's tobacco prevention trust fund.

The health organizations — the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association — are to be commended for monitoring use of the tobacco settlement. With so much money at stake, it is tempting for states to use it for purposes far afield from the intent of the settlement.

But both health advocates and the state need to take a reasoned look at where Hawai'i's share of the settlement — $1.3 billion over 25 years — is going and how to best spend the money.

The key question is whether Hawai'i is adequately funding tobacco prevention and whether spending money on the medical school strays from the intent of the settlement.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson says the state is spending enough on the anti-smoking campaign and says critics are not looking at other funding. The state, he says, is spending $7.1 million on tobacco-related activities, and the figure will increase.

But Clifford Chang, director of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai'i, calls for aggressive media and community-based programs focused exclusively on tobacco.

We agree. The question is how much money needs to be spent. Throwing more funding than is necessary at a campaign just because the money is there is foolish.

Dr. Edwin Cadman, dean of the UH medical school, notes that the medical school is doing research related to healthcare and has tobacco-prevention programs in the School of Public Health.

If some of the tobacco settlement funding does that, it is to the benefit of the health of all of us. And as a world-class institution, it will be incumbent on the medical school to be a leader in tobacco prevention.

Anti-tobacco organizations need to look at all the ways we can fight smoking, including a role for the medical school. And the medical school must live up to expectations that it will be in the anti-tobacco forefront.

Then that will mean our tobacco settlement money is being well-spent.