Posted on: Saturday, March 5, 2005

EDITORIAL
Despite the stats, fight against tobacco goes on

This week's Advertiser held some encouraging news: Tobacco smoking rates here have dropped, particularly among middle and high schoolers.

Smoking among middle school students, those statistics show, dropped from 13 percent in 2000 to 5.3 percent in 2003. During the same period, high school smoking rates fell from 24.5 percent to 14.9 percent; and for adults, the rate dropped by 12.7 percent.

Those promising numbers were celebrated at a rally at the state Capitol Tuesday. The rally also was designed to urge lawmakers to continue funding tobacco-cessation and smoking-prevention programs with tobacco settlement funds.

Hawai'i's tobacco funds are the fruits of a 1998 lawsuit brought against tobacco companies by 46 states. Hawai'i's share amounted to $1.2 billion, or roughly $40 million a year for the next 20-plus years.

Unlike many other states, Hawai'i's tobacco settlement money appropriately tends to go toward its intended purpose, funding health-related programs. The amount designated specifically for tobacco prevention efforts, though, has dwindled.

And as these statistics show, anti-tobacco programs are working.

But let's not stop there.

The next big push, says Deborah Zysman, director for the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, will be persuading the Legislature next year to make Hawai'i part of the group of progressive states that have smoke-free workplaces.

A recent study in Montana showed a 40 percent drop in heart attacks as a direct result of a smoke-free workplace, Zysman said.

"We can cut heart attack rates, we can cut cancer rates," she said. "Tobacco costs Hawai'i alone about half a billion dollars a year in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Anything we can do to bring down those costs is huge."

She's right. Let's hope the Legislature will see the light as well.