Sixteen years ago Washington led the nation in reaching a settlement with the tobacco industry. The intended use was for prevention education of our children. Washington, once the leader, now ranks No. 44 among all states in the nation for the percentage of spending recommended by the CDC on tobacco education and prevention.
We know that 9 out of 10 lifetime smokers begin the deadly habit before they are 18. We also know that in the state of Washington tobacco claims approximately 8,300 lives and costs $ 2.8 billion in health-care bills related tobacco caused illnesses.
Currently Washington is in an extended session. The proposed budget has allotted zero dollars, that is right … zero dollars for the intended purpose of tobacco education. Personally, this is not acceptable. We aren’t talking increasing taxes for these programs. We are talking about using the money received from the tobacco industry that was intended to recoup the high cost their products exact on our health and to be used for tobacco education.
I am concerned about our priorities. We need to value the future of Washington. Our future is in having healthy children who become healthy adults. We need to fund tobacco education and prevention … we need to educate our youth before they are even tempted to start smoking. t needs to happen now!
Christine Griffiths
ACS Cancer Action Network Ambassador
Bothell
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