9 hours Ago
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death, killing about 500,000 Americans each year. For many years, the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has served as the lead federal agency for tobacco control. It’s been very effective — one recent media campaign that encouraged smokers to quit saved an estimated 120,000 lives that otherwise would have been lost to smoking-related diseases, including chronic conditions such heart and lung disease.
The new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has vowed to fight the “chronic disease epidemic” as a top priority.
As a part of his ongoing elimination of many government programs crucial to public health, in early April Kennedy dismissed all personnel in the Office on Smoking and Health. ADVERTISEMENT A cynic may wonder if this decision was related to the fact that the single largest corporate donor to Donald Trump’s reelection was the parent company of R.J.
Reynolds, the tobacco giant that produces Camels and other brands. Or, more charitably, perhaps it is just another example of profound ignorance. I urge Rep.
Brad Finstad to work with his congressional colleagues to restore this office. As estimated 80,000 smokers live in his district; half of them will die from a smoking-related illness. This is not a partisan political issue; it is a matter of saving the lives of our friends and neighbors.
David Warner , Rochester.
