LETTERS: PULLING CIGARETTES

To the editor:

Target Stores' decision to stop selling cigarettes nationwide was made for business reasons, according to a company spokeswoman, but that decision is also good for our community.

Tobacco is a killer, and it is killing our children, our siblings, our spouses and our parents. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in our country. According to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 320,000 Americans die each year from cigarette smoking. Of these, the majority became addicted to nicotine as adolescents before the age of legal consent.

Children of smokers are at increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome. They are at risk of respiratory conditions and stunted lung development.

Every day across our nation 3,000 children begin smoking. Those who smoke as few as five cigarettes a day have impaired lung development, according to a 15-year study of more than 10,000 youths published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Of these young smokers, the more they smoked and the longer they smoked, the greater the damage to their lung growth and breathing capacity.

In addition, tobacco is a gateway drug. These young smokers are 5.9 times more likely than their nonsmoking counterparts to graduate to other illegal drugs.

Hats off to Target for its healthy stand. I congratulate them for their tobacco-free store and their smoke-free restaurant and challenge other local businesses to follow suit and provide all of us with a healthier environment.

JILL VENEZIAN

Cape Girardeau