Group urges use of tobacco funds in fight vs. smoking

An official of an independent health foundation yesterday urged the CNMI government to use the tobacco settlement fund to carry out a comprehensive prevention and education campaign against tobacco consumption on the islands.

Dr. M. Lyndon Haviland, Executive Vice President of the Washington-based American Legacy Foundation, said there is a need to use the fund only to implement a comprehensive tobacco control program that will address the enormous health and social costs associated with tobacco consumption.

Ms. Haviland’s campaign came at a time when the legislature was seeking an explanation from the Department of Finance whatever happened to the $800,000 received so far by the CNMI government as its share from the multi-billion dollar tobacco settlement agreement.

The legislature has expressed concern that while the money has not yet been appropriated by the legislature, the government has already spent the funds handed over to the Commonwealth since 1999.

Ms. Haviland said tobacco control program should include appropriate cessation services, aggressive clean indoor air act and reduction in exposure to second hand smoke.

“You need to denormalize tobacco use, you need to make it possible to have a tobacco free generation and you need public places to be tobacco free,” she added.

The Master Settlement Agreement between the representatives of 46 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the District of Columbia and the nation’s largest tobacco manufacturers did not specify how the funds should be used to allow the states and jurisdictions to be creative as much as possible.

However, since these states and jurisdictions have spent so much money in paying for the care of people who are dying of tobacco related illnesses, Ms. Haviland said it is just right that the funds be used for health, education and social services.

American Legacy Foundation works with various organizations interested in decreasing tobacco consumption among all ages and populations. It has established three goals: reduce youth tobacco use, reduce exposure to second-hand smoke and increase successful quit rates.

It is funding a national advertising and education program designed to reduce youth tobacco use.

Ms. Haviland said the programs in the states of Massachusetts and California have greatly reduced exposure of people to second-hand smoke. In the CNMI, she said students should not be allowed to smoke in the school grounds and sale of tobacco should be prohibited within the site of the school as these would send the wrong signals to the young people that the use of tobacco is normal.

“You have to get areas such as hospitals or schools not just to designate smoking areas but to be smoke-free places. You have to get parents to understand that their modeling behavior is important — that it should be a smoke-free family,” she added.

In order to effectively communicate to the youth the dangers of tobacco consumption, the program should make use of the young people in the campaign. “We need to understand that the use of tobacco is a way of expressing their rebellion, a way of establishing themselves, their way of saying I am an adult,” Ms. Haviland said.