This is all so sick. We are sick if we believe we can control our nation's spiraling health costs without also taking a tour of the lives that are going up in smoke.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoking rates in the U.S. have declined to less than 20 percent of the population for the first time in our history.
While we are lunging into group hugs to celebrate our success, we need to add up the numbers.
First, cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals and toxins.
Second, more than 1 billion people in the world smoke cigarettes.
Third, about 100,000 children worldwide start the habit of smoking cigarettes every day.
Fourth, smoking kills one in every 10 adults in the U.S.
Fifth, 443,000 people in the U.S. die prematurely each year as a result of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
And, sixth, smoking cigarettes annually costs our country $193 billion in health care expenditures and lost productivity.
Right now, the House of Representatives and Senate are debating a "bailout" of approximately $900 billion. Politicians are coming out of the Capitol woodwork pontificating on "government waste" or "squandering the people's money" in this effort to pull us out of this economic swamp.
At the same time, we turn our nostrils the other way when we know cigarette smoke is costing us almost $200 billion and the loss of half a million lives a year.
When we wake up and smell the numbers, I am recommending we, the electorate, take the following three initiatives.
First, we need to let our elected officials know we support the present languishing legislation giving Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products.
Specifically, we need to remind ourselves smoking tobacco products are responsible for more than 5 million deaths a year - 13,500 of us each day.
We also have to face the fact that 80 percent of smokers get addicted before the age of 21. Put that number together with the CDC report that the smoking rate among high school students, 20 percent in 2007, has not significantly declined since 2003.
This legislation, approved last July by a 326-102 vote in the House, would crack down on tobacco marketing and sales to children. After all, children are the only market left to the tobacco industry. Shouldn't we be protecting our children from killing themselves?
The Senate will take up this legislation this year and it has over 60 sponsors. A letter, a phone call, an e-mail of support to Sens. Kit Bond or Claire McCaskill will save lives and lower our national health bill.
Second, the state of Missouri controls tobacco taxes and laws that govern the smoke-free workplace. We all know there has been progress, but it is miniscule compared to the reality that we are killing ourselves with every tobacco stick inhaled. Specifically, all the states in the nation are spending $718.1 million dollars this year on tobacco prevention programs, which is 269 times less than the liabilities of health care costs that waft into our collective checkbooks.
Third, we have to continue to talk out loud to each other about what this addiction is costing us.
Our health care system is sick. With 45 million citizens without health insurance, emergency rooms have become the treatment of choice. Every time someone walks in, you and I, who dole out monthly health care premiums, will pay all over again.
Every 8 seconds someone dies from a smoking-related illness. Every cigarette takes approximately 5 minutes off a life. And every minute we continue to debate, argue and delay this health hazard, national health care becomes a dream going up in smoke.
Cal LeMon of Springfield-based Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. He can be reached at execenrichment@aol.com.
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
