HEALTH WATCH : Taking Care

Lest anyone think that all the news coming out of California these days is gloomy, here’s some good news: Californians may be stressed about job security and the cost of living but they aren’t too stressed to take better care of their health.

It’s no joke: The changes that Californians are making are the lifesaving sort. An ambitious public health campaign by the state government has reduced the ranks of smokers 17% in the last 3 years, according to a new state-funded study. And the California Highway Patrol reports that use of seat belts has brought the number of traffic fatalities per 100 million miles of vehicle travel to the lowest level in state history.

It’s no coincidence, as one state official noted, that both of these dramatic drops occurred around the time state laws were enacted that mandated seat-belt use and discouraged smoking.

Proposition 99, passed by voters in 1988, increased the cigarette tax by 25 cents and created a major anti-smoking education program.

If the drop in the percentage of smokers continues at the rate of the last 3 years, the state government will reach its goal of cutting smoking by 75% by the year 2000, said one co-author of the study. There’s still much headway to be made among teen-agers, who continue to start smoking, and among black men, who are most likely to try to quit but least likely to actually stay off cigarettes.

But overall, the dangers of smoking and of driving without seat belts are becoming part of the consciousness of living in California. That’s as it should be.