Anti-smoking efforts will save health costs

The Iowa House recently eliminated funding for tobacco prevention and cessation services, by cutting the budget for these services from $7.8 million to zero. The tobacco industry spends more than $180 million in marketing its products in Iowa each year.

The governor and the Iowa Senate both support funding tobacco prevention and cessation services. A recent Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance survey found that 85 percent of Iowa voters feel it is a proper role of state government to encourage children and teenagers not to start smoking, and 68 percent indicated it is an appropriate function of state government to help Iowans stop smoking.

In the 10 years since the stated services to educate Iowa's teens on the threats of tobacco use, and to help those addicted to tobacco quit, we've seen a dramatic decline in smoking rates, from 23 percent to 14 percent among adults and from

33 percent to 20 percent for high school students.

Tobacco-related diseases cost Iowans over

$1 billion a year, and

$301 million of that is covered by Medicaid. Reducing smoking rates and the diseases related to tobacco use saves the state money in Medicaid as well as private employers who insure their workers.

Gary J. Streit

Cedar Rapids