The clearing smoke

After years of bad news about the high level of cigarette smoking among Maine’s youth, the state’s Bureau of Health finally had news that wasn’t just good but remarkable. These latest findings suggest that a seemingly intractable problem can, in fact, be greatly reduced and that Maine has a lot more room for improvement.

The reduction in high school tobacco addiction, according to the bureau, was 27 percent from 1997 to ’99. In 1998, the bureau reported that 38 percent of high school boys and 41 percent of high school girls were smokers. Given the amount of available information about use and the long-term harm it does, even the current number of young smokers here is too high, but the Mainers should be encouraged by the state’s effort to curb this dangerous addiction.

For the last couple of years, the Bureau of Health has led an effort that includes an advertising campaign, increased inspections of places that sell tobacco and a tax that makes cigarettes more expensive. It is difficult to say which of these elements is responsible for the drop in smoking, or whether they all contributed, but considering the constant and sophisticated campaign from tobacco companies to get people to try their products, Maine should feel it has gained some success against some very tough competition.

Fittingly, the bureau recently outlined three immediate challenges to further cut smoking rates. First, state officials need to find new ways to persuade teen-agers to quit, or even better, not to start the habit. Next, they need to tell women about the dangers of smoking while pregnant – the infants of smokers are far more likely to be of low birth weight and to have more health problems. About 20 percent of women smoke through pregnancy; among low-income of young women, that figure is 50 percent. And secondhand smoke – the unfiltered nemesis that can harm both smokers and nonsmokers -remains a problem as long as some indoor and some outdoor public places still tolerate smoking. Most children, the bureau notes, are exposed to secondhand smoke at least weekly.

A year ago, when Maine was thrashing out how it wanted to spend its share of the nation tobacco settlement, Dr. Stephen Sears, chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health, offered this disturbing thought: “Tobacco use is responsible for more deaths than alcohol, auto accidents, AIDS, suicides, murders and illegal drugs combined.” Who knows how many lives have been saved so far with the Maine campaign to reduce smoking, but it’s certain that more could be and that the state has taken some very positive first steps in that direction.