[ OUR OPINION ]
Anti-tobacco programs
show vital gainsHAWAII receives high marks for its low death rates for cancer, but more must be done to discourage young people from becoming addicted to tobacco, the chief cause of the most prevalent form of cancer. The success of that effort should not cause a further diversion of funds for programs aimed at helping smokers quit and preventing others from beginning the deadly habit.
THE ISSUE
An annual report on cancer shows that Hawaii has the nation's second-lowest death rate for lung cancer.A report published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute estimates 556,500 Americans will die this year of cancer, second to heart disease as the nation's leading cause of death. Lung cancer, the most lethal form of cancer, will take 157,000 lives.
The report found that lung cancer death rates among men declined throughout the 1990s while the rate of increase in cancer-related mortality among women slowed, reflecting advances in cancer detection and treatment along with efforts at reducing tobacco use. The report's authors recommend that tobacco control measures be strengthened in all states, but many are cutting back because of budget problems.
Hawaii is reported to have a rate of lung cancer deaths at 39.7 a year per 100,000 population, second-lowest only to Utah, where the Mormon church has a strong influence against smoking. Hawaii men have the third-lowest death rate from lung cancer, at 54.3 deaths per 100,000, while Hawaii women's rate is 27.4.
The report says that 12.1 percent of Hawaii's youths ages 12 to 17 smoke, a spectacular improvement over a period of a few years. Surveys sponsored partly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cosponsor of this week's report, found that 29.2 percent of Hawaii high school students smoked in 1997, 27.9 percent in 1999 and 15 percent in 2001 -- little more than half the national youth average of 28.5 percent for that year.
Use of funds received as proceeds of the 1998 out-of-court settlement of lawsuits brought by Hawaii and 45 other states against tobacco companies has to have played a major role in the reduction of smoking by teenagers. Hawaii receives more than $40 million a year from the settlement.
The share of the settlement proceeds dedicated to tobacco prevention and control was reduced by the 2001 Legislature from one-fourth to one-eighth, still fourth-highest per capita in the country. Those dollars have been used wisely to counter the $41.5 million the tobacco industry is estimated to spend on promotion in Hawaii.
In tobacco-friendly Kentucky, 31 percent of adults smoke, compared with 13.3 percent in Utah and 20.6 percent in Hawaii. Kentucky spends only 84 cents a person on tobacco-control programs -- $10 dollars less per capita than that spent in Hawaii. It comes as no surprise that Kentucky has the nation's highest death rate from lung cancer.
