PUBLIC FORUM : HEALTH SERVICES TOP WISH LISTS FOR USE OF TOBACCO SETTLEMENT.A significant portion of the nicotine-stained money Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. is supposed to receive from the tobacco settlement should rightfully go to enforcement of smoking laws already on the books. The California Smoke-free Workplace smoke-free workplace Labor law A workplace where use of cigarettes and other tobacco smoke products–cigars, pipes, is not allowed indoors Act, which banned smoking indoors at workplaces and in bars, restaurants and taverns, is not effectively enforced. A sizable amount should also go to Medicaid for health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract that treat people suffering from illnesses due to tobacco-related disease. There is an urgent need to fund prevention initiatives and programs designed to warn and educate children, tobacco's residual market, and adults about the adverse results of smoking. Finally, we should invest in funding biomedical research Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research or applied research conducted to aid the body of knowledge in the field of medicine. and educational programs designed to find cessation devices, medicines and cures for disease and illness caused by use of tobacco products and secondhand smoke sec·ond·hand smoke n. Cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoke that is inhaled unintentionally by nonsmokers and may be injurious to their health if inhaled regularly over a long period. Also called passive smoke. . This is not free money that we will get for the next 24 years. It is only a partial repayment of the tax dollars we have spent and are continuing to spend for taxpayer-subsidized medical care of those who have suffered illness and death due to tobacco-related diseases. California is not only getting less per capita [Latin, By the heads or polls.] A term used in the Descent and Distribution of the estate of one who dies without a will. It means to share and share alike according to the number of individuals. than Mississippi but is receiving only 33 cents of every tax dollar, without inflation, we pay for public health services. Out tax liability for these health services will continue to rise into the foreseeable future. - Joseph Wm. Hummel hummel entire, naturally polled deer. Chairman Western States Affiliate American Heart Association American Heart Association (AHA), n.pr a national voluntary health agency that has the goal of increasing public and medical awareness of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, and thereby reducing the number of associated deaths and disabilities. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's proposal to expend the $312 million tobacco settlement funds coming to Los Angeles on curb ramps and sidewalk improvements stands as the city's best opportunity to provide a tangible, measurable and lasting benefit to people with disabilities and the community at large. Other tentative proposals for the use of the funds, such as health-related and education programs, are laudable but best suited to other levels of government. The county has appropriately dedicated its $3.35 billion share of the settlement funds to health-care activities that will benefit all county residents. The state and county are already funding anti-smoking education campaigns with tobacco tax revenues. In addition, funds from the recently passed Proposition 10 tobacco tax and the new settlement agreement, which establishes a national anti-smoking education fund, will expand present efforts. The provision and maintenance of sidewalk infrastructure is not only a primary municipal responsibility, but a mandate of the federal Americans With Disabilities Act Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. . How do sidewalk repairs relate to tobacco and the settlement fund? Consider this factor: Conditions caused or exacerbated by tobacco, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and respiratory illnesses, frequently lead to mobility impairment, resulting in the use of wheelchairs, walkers, canes and motorized scooters. - Sharon H. Morris Executive director Department on Disability Los Angeles In an article I recently read, the chilling comment was made that the tobacco industry should face huge settlement costs in suits filed by the governments of several states because justice requires that ``the punishment should fit the crime.'' What crime? The tobacco industry has in recent years been demonized for providing for generations a product that is legal and produces substantial tax revenues for the government and, unquestionably un·ques·tion·a·ble adj. Beyond question or doubt. See Synonyms at authentic. un·ques  tion·a·bil , a degree of pleasure for the smoker. This whole tobacco regulation hysteria has nothing to do with improving the health of Americans by discouraging smoking. It has everything to do with a government that can't squeeze much more out of the taxpayers but cannot restrain the urge to spend, spend, spend. Riordan wants to use L.A.'s cut of the extortion swag to repair the sidewalks. What on Earth has that to do with smoking-related illness? The question suggests using the money for tax cuts - another use for the money that has no impact on smokers' health. I'm alarmed by these developments, not because I favor smoking (I quit almost 30 years ago), but because I like other things of which the health fascists disapprove. Someday in the not-too-distant future, the granola Gestapo, slavering slav·er 1 intr.v. slav·ered, slav·er·ing, slav·ers 1. To slobber; drool. 2. To behave in an obsequious manner; fawn. See Synonyms at fawn1. n. 1. demagogues at heel, will come after my KFC KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken (restaurant chain) KFC Kenya Flower Council KFC Kitchen Fresh Chicken (Kentucky Fried Chicken motto) KFC Kung Fu Cult (Cinema) KFC Kitchen Fixed Charge extra-crispy, my adult beverages and my fat-and-sugar-laden Mrs. Fields' cookies. - Pat Parker Los Angeles The tobacco settlement plan will help make up for some of the money our country has already contributed to the treatment of smoking-related illnesses. The plan will potentially reduce the number of smokers with programs and research, and by raising the price of cigarettes. I hope to see this plan go through. It will be a real help to the economy of our country and to the health of our people. - Jennifer Larimer Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. Why should there be any discussion about the use of the money? We have always been led to believe that the purpose of pursuing this settlement was to use the money solely to reimburse the states for the medical costs incurred by those cigarette smokers who suffer ill effects of smoking. - Blanche Tull Lancaster If the politicians really gave a rat's behind about our health, they would use every penny of the tobacco settlement to open free ``stop smoking'' clinics all over California. But of course they won't, even though the money is not coming from the tobacco companies, but rather straight out of our pockets via price increases. - Scott Jones Scott Jones may refer to:
North Hollywood The tobacco money should go to where it came from, the smokers, for cancer research and to treat victims of lung cancer lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs after repeated insults to the genetic material of the cell. . Everyone knew cigarette smoking was the chief cause of lung cancer. All this time federal, state and local governments have been taxing cigarettes. Question: Where did all those billions and billions of tax dollars go? To treat lung cancer? I doubt it. - Emmett W. Schoeberl Agoura Hills If one dime of tobacco money is spent on anything other than medical care of smoking-related diseases, it would constitute extortion - extortion not of the tobacco companies but of the people who buy their legal products. What's next? Guns kill, coffee is addictive, and some say music and movies have unwanted influences on people. Let's tax the worst of these and build a golden glass utopia. - Michael Sellers Michael Sellers (Born July 21, 1975 in Frankfurt, Germany), is an American football player in the NFL for the Washington Redskins. He was the youngest import player to sign a CFL deal in the history of the football league when he played at 19 years old for the Edmonton Eskimos. Sylmar The tobacco settlement is a huge double-taxation fiasco foisted on the public by the deceptive states' attorneys general. Does it make the officials who supposedly lied pay? Not appreciably. Does it harm the tobacco companies? Maybe some, but they just pass the bite on to us. The hoodwink hood·wink tr.v. hood·winked, hood·wink·ing, hood·winks 1. To take in by deceptive means; deceive. See Synonyms at deceive. 2. Archaic To blindfold. 3. Obsolete To conceal. of double taxation is in a growth mode. Why would we want to continue it? Let's chop off this stuff and quit sending tax money to the federal government. Really reduce the size of government and let us pay our own way. - Arthur T. White West Hills If the state only took the money it could prove had been spent on smoking-related medical costs, there would be plenty left. How many victims of fires caused by ``careless disposal of smoking material'' are there each year? Of course, if there were any money left over, the obvious place for it to go would be on tax cuts - to be paid to smokers, on submission of their cash-register receipts, and reimbursement of the unconscionable Unusually harsh and shocking to the conscience; that which is so grossly unfair that a court will proscribe it. When a court uses the word unconscionable to describe conduct, it means that the conduct does not conform to the dictates of conscience. Proposition 10 and Proposition 99 taxes, and the downright obscene sales taxes that were charged on those taxes. - Michael A. Padlipsky Los Angeles |
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