Where to Spend Tobacco Money

* Re “Money Should Go to Health Care,” Dec. 19 editorial:

If our Orange County supervisors, who are still elected by the people, have any consciousness of the health and well-being of the people of Orange County, they should not have any problem deciding what to do with the tobacco settlement money.

It is blood money to be paid to the county and the people for the damage to and loss of health by the victims of tobacco.

That could include anybody who has inhaled tobacco smoke over many years.

I have seen and heard of people who have had to give up their homes just to settle huge medical and hospital bills. They could not afford the treatment of expensive medicines and machines.

Some hospital and medical bills are $60,000 to $100,000 and greater. A funeral is cheaper and less of a burden on families in the long run.

That tobacco settlement money could buy those expensive machines so more people could afford the treatment and the medical care they need.

The supervisors are just as likely to come down with cancer or lung ailments as anybody else. They are not immune to these afflictions.

DEAN ALBRIGHT

Huntington Beach

* The primary reason California joined the tobacco settlement was to protect health and prevent under-age smoking.

Since its inception, the position of the American Lung Assn. of Orange County has been that 100% of the funds go toward health, with a portion earmarked for tobacco prevention and education.

Tobacco prevention and education has been a targeted priority also for the Health Alliance to Reinvest the Tobacco Settlement, as addressed in its original mission statement.

Members of the alliance include the Orange County Medical Assn., clinics and local chapters of the American Cancer Society and American Heart Assn., among many others.

The impact of tobacco use in Orange County is astounding. Every year at least 18,000 Orange County teenagers begin to smoke. One-third of them will die from a tobacco-related illness, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Orange County Health Care Agency.

An estimated 3,000 Orange County residents die each year from smoking-related diseases--20% of all deaths (“The Cost of Smoking in California, 1993,” Wendy Max and Dorothy P. Rice, UC San Francisco).

Environmental tobacco smoke, or secondhand smoke, is a Class A carcinogen known to cause cancer in humans with no safe level of exposure. In the United States, it causes 53,000 deaths per year (New England Journal of Medicine, 1994).

The American Lung Assn. of Orange County intends that a portion of tobacco settlement funds be used to address serious needs in Orange County: the reduction of use of tobacco by youths and adults and reduction in exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

The American Lung Assn. has not, nor will it ever, change its position. Our mission is to fight lung disease and to promote lung health.

DIANE MASSETH-JONES

Executive Director

American Lung Assn.

of Orange County