LETTERS: CURBING SMOKING

To the editor:

I was disappointed with your recent editorial regarding the tobacco litigation proceedings. First, it suggests that trial lawyers are the primary beneficiaries of a process that has finally made public the fact that tobacco companies have knowingly promoted nicotine addiction among children to maximize their profits. You seem to have overlooked the significant public health and economic benefits of reducing the number of beginning smokers. Approximately 500,000 Americans will die this year from smoking-related illness, and the total annual value of lost productivity and disability time related to smoking amounts to $47 billion.

Your editorial also states that "everyone" knows the risks of smoking and that it is a person's right to make that choice. Considering that 90 percent of smokers begin before age 21, and over 50 percent are aged 14 and under, we must keep in mind that it is children making the choices that lead to tobacco addiction. Certainly most of these children have been presented with some factual knowledge regarding the health risks of tobacco use, but they have also been influenced by daily doses of incentives to choose to smoke by an industry that has been spending over $13 million a day in advertising.

The legal process has finally forced the tobacco industry toward accountability, and if the result is that fewer children choose to use, we will all benefit. I applaud those responsible for implementing this change.

JIM MAGINEL

Cape Girardeau