By DAN GRAY
Director
Kosciusko County Tobacco Free Coalition

April 7-13 is National Public Health Week and the Kosciusko County Tobacco Free Coalition is reminding everyone of the need to be more conscious of a healthy lifestyle that will give ourselves the quality of life we want to live during the span of life on this world. This is the time to remind you that tobacco is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the U.S. and that we need to fully implement proven public health strategies that can end this epidemic.

As described in the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, the past 50 years of tobacco control are a public health success story. Smoking rates among adults and teens are less than half what they were in 1964 when the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health was released. These lower smoking rates have saved about 8 million lives in this country. Since 1964, average life expectancy has increased by about 10 years, and a third of that increase is because of lower smoking rates.

In the last half century, we have developed public health strategies that are proven to reduce tobacco use, including:

• Affordable and accessible cessation help for all tobacco users who want to quit.
• Smoke-free policies that protect nonsmokers in all workplaces and public places.
• Higher prices on tobacco products.
• Hard-hitting mass-media campaigns informing them about the dangers of all kinds of tobacco, including smoking, and providing resources to help them quit.
• Funding comprehensive statewide tobacco control programs at CDC-recommended levels.

If we dedicate ourselves to fully implementing these proven public health strategies, we can reach a point where tobacco use is rare rather than an epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs note that if all states were to maintain CDC-recommended levels of funding, millions of fewer people in the U.S. would smoke and hundreds of thousands of premature tobacco-related deaths would be prevented.

According to CDC 5.6 million children alive today will ultimately DIE early from smoking if we do not do more to reduce current smoking rates. That is equal to one child out of every 13 alive in the United States today.

The next 50 years, if we could help every person that use tobacco quit and keep young people from starting in the first place, the results would be staggering. Half million premature deaths could be prevented every year. At least $130 billion in direct medical cost for adults could be saved every year. At least 88 million Americans who continue to be exposed to the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke could breathe freely. The 5.6 million children alive today who ultimately will die early because of smoking could live to a normal life expectancy.

More than 16 million people already have a least one disease from smoking. We could prevent that number from growing more. One out three cancer deaths in this country could be prevented. At least $156 billion in losses to our economy caused when people get sick and die early from smoking could be prevented.

Just because there has been a dramatic decrease in tobacco use the last 50 years does not mean we have succeeded. It means we need to continue to be successful by decreasing the amount of tobacco use and the tobacco related diseases and deaths. The 1-800-QUIT-NOW FREE cessation counseling is available for everyone beginning at age 13. There is also local help by calling the Kosciusko County Tobacco Free Coalition at 260-571-2464, located at 1515 Provident Dr., Warsaw.

Good health leads to a better life. If everyone in Kosciusko County does everything they can to have a healthier lifestyle, whether it is exercising more, eating healthier, being more aware of what your body needs, or quitting tobacco, we can improve the health quality of the county.